;or the East Malaysians in the CEC do not push for 100% disbursements of wealth generated by East Malaysia (rather than the 15% touted by DAP as ‘equality’ or even worse 5% from BN which is mostly pocketed by term limitless and nepotistic as well as corrupted politicians), what East Malaysia will have here is a CEC of puppets controlled by shadow players in the background of tem limitless nepotists taking 1 million in taxpayer monies every term they get from the Rakyat. The policy NOT the racial makeup determines a political party’s value, and from the above reasons, DAP is a USELESS political party good at showing token ethnicity but not actual policy (think pro ISA legal beagle Kasiviswanathan Shanmugan of PAP or the recent spate of firings of Indians from DAP). Nice talk but lies and bad politics that forget the promises they won GE13 by.

The construction of the RM40 million road connecting Ba Kelalan to Bario in Sarawak, at the cost of an essential water catchment area has angered local villagers.

KUCHING: Angry villagers in Ba’Kelalan have threatened the Malaysian Royal Army Engineers Regiment with a court injunction if they persist in building the Ba’kelalan-Bario road.

“If need be, we will apply for a court injunction to stop the army contractors from proceeding with the road construction,” said Baru Bian, a lawyer and Ba’Kelalan assemblyman.

Bian said that he had written to the chief of the Armed Forces that the villagers did not want the road (Ba’Kelalan-Bario road) as it passes Sungai Muda, which is a water catchment area.

The villagers have instead proposed that road be built from Belingi-Lepo Bunga-Bario. This would then safeguard the catchment area.

“The villagers have objected to the road being built through Sungai Muda as it would affect the water catchment area at Sungai Muda,” he said.

Bian, who is Sarawak PKR chief, said he was disappointed with army’s reply that only a few people were against the road construction while the majority of the villagers were for it.

“The folks in Ba Kelalan wants to protect Sungai Muda because its destruction would affect the lives of about 2,000 villagers from Punan Kelalan, Long Muda, Long Kumap, Long Langai, Long Lemutut, Buduk Nur, and SK Ba’Kelalan, an international award winning school,” he said.

In the letter, the army also said that the few people who rejected the road were the supporters of the Bian and that it reflected a very bad image.

“I have submitted a list of 152 villagers who are against the construction, and I will be calling for a big meeting in Ba’Kelalan on Dec 16, 2012,” said Bian.

“If the army still persists in carrying out the construction, we will apply for an injunction. It is typical of the BN mentality to blame the problem on the opposition.”

What about NCR rights?

On the reason given by the army that it is a ‘security road’ having its strategic importance to the forward operation base along the border to Lapo Bunga Cam, Bian said that it appeared that the army refused to listen to the people.

“Are they are serving the people or are they serving their own interest?” he asked.

He also questioned whether the road was properly planned as there was no EIA report and did not appear to involve the state authorities.

“And what about the native customary rights land of the people? Have they been excised out? My suspicion is that the project is improperly done and I urge the army to listen to the people,” he said.

Last month the villagers set up a blockade at Pa’Patar and Arur Lutut which is near the water catchment area called Sungai Muda.

The villagers claimed that contractors had already cleared about a kilometre stretch of the jungle despite their disagreement to have the road built through Sungai Muda.

The villagers told reporters last month that the army had explained to them that they opted for the Sungai Muda route because it is 20km shorter than the Belingi-Lepo Bunga-Bario route, and thus would incur less cost.

The villagers, however, did not buy that story because the Belingi-Lepo Bunga-Bario route is already there and merely needed small improvements, such as culverts.

The construction of the RM42 million Ba Kelalan-Bario Road started on Oct 1 and is expected to be completed by Sept 2014.

Defence minister Ahmad Zaidi Hamidi said army would implement the project under the Blue Ocean Strategy, and the road was a continuation of the 75km Long Luping-Ba Kelalan Road which was completed in September last year.

Does the above NPP warning ring any bells? (Please warn to remove if offensive . . . the post will be removed if so . . . )

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Good work but please do get some busybody QC from England to front you guys or make sure the UN gets minutes and video footage of every step taken by Orang Asli here. At the sme time don’t get too close to the colonial English. Replacing one Tuan with another Colonial White Raja is no different and will result in the same nonsense. Ask for equality in disbursements of wealth generated from east Malaysia, or demand secession then independence at the UN!

US Opposition Leaders have slammed Malaysia and PM Najib for pursuing the “politics of ambivalence”, urging Putrajaya to drop its “aggressively” pro-Islamist stance and meet strife-stricken ASEAN nations at least half-way over the long-standing BUMIPUTRA APARTHEID issue, which he argued was a key factor for the growing anti-Malaysian sentiment around the ASEAN world.

“People don’t hate Malays because of rights or they are Malays but because of the contradictions, the injustices. How can you expect any woman or man who have lived in the era of human rights to accept the crimes committed in Malaysia against Malaysian non-Malay minorities,” USA said during an hour-long interview with Israel-based TV conducted in Tel Aviv on November 20 and aired on December 12

“It is important for Malaysia not to take a blinkered view. [For example] they can choose to disagree with Arabia but they must engage with Arabia…we talk about nuclear capability, the non-muslim world is saying why not to Israel and ‘yes’ to USA. Why ‘yes’ to Pakistan and ‘no’ to India?

“[This is the] politics of ambivalence. On one hand, you talk about democracy and on the other you work with the Lim Kit Siangs and the Anwar Ibrahims and the Karpal Singhs. There is a vast contradiction… Malaysia is perceived to be condoning the excesses and this is continuing mind you.

“You must have consistent coherent policies so that people can trust you.

Anwar better than Najib but still an under-performer in ASEAN policy

Obama, a well-respected figure who frequently tours and lectures around the Western world, minced no words when he questioned how Malaysia if it truly “challenges itself as the bastion of democracy and freedom” could close an eye to the mass killings and plight of the innocent, especially women and children, in the Israel.

He urged Anwar, whom he rated as being “better than Najib”, to break new ground in Malaysian foreign policy by putting greater pressure ad responsibility on Putrajaya to come to the negotiating table with the Western nations and on fairer terms.

“My stand is he’s better than Najin in terms of rhetoric in his speech but not in the actions, not in the foreign policy, not in his response to the apartheid and discrimination in Malaysia. This is totally unacceptable.”

Aggressive racists can be reined in by Malaysia

When asked if Anwar or the Malaysia could rein in the Najib administration, which has been accused of preferring military action rather than dialogue, Obama pointed out that Malaysia supplied the bulk of financial aid to racists.

“Of course they (Malaysia) can, they can do it in Putrajaya, they can do it in Thailand. I am not suggesting they go and conquer Indonesia which I opposed the war in Indonesia. But the Malaysia wields a lot influence. Putrajaya is the largest recipient of aid from Malaysia, huge, and the second very very low is Singapore. So can we say there is no influence? We are not even asking Malaysia to influence what is improper,” he said.

“Without the Malaysia, Putrajaya will not be able to move.”

A practising non-Muslim, Obama also took to task the OIC as well as some parts of the Western world including the current US government for failing to take stronger measures that could contribute to a more sustainable solution for Israel due to fear of offending Palestine.

“The position of the Palestinian can be considered to be extreme in the sense that all excess and all transgressions of international laws, all plunders and including the Occupation of Israel seem to be condoned accepted and that seems to be the main contentious issue not only in the non-Muslim world but the world that believes in freedom and justice. That seems absolutely so difficult. Many of my friends in the administration and past administrations in Malaysia tell me, Obama you can debate with them, you can argue with them, you can disagree with them on every subject except the Israeli-Palestinian issue,” he said.

“I think the Palestinians are misreading the situation purely and plainly because of their complete arrogance of power but my criticism of the USA government’s attitude is that nothing has been done except for resolutions and the resolutions seem to ignore Malaysia so we must also check on the Security Council and Malaysia because without Malaysian assistance, the Bumiputra Apartheid will not move in that manner (to attack Israel).

Don’t give up: Vital for the US to engage with the Bumiputra

The un-bespectacled Obama, a former Senator whom many USa watchers rate as having a better than even chance of becoming his country’s next Nelson Mandela in ending apartheid in Malaysia, also urged Middle Eastern nations not to give in to frustration but to keep trying to engage with the Malasyia despite Malaysia’s “hypocrisy” and refusal to rein Bumiputras.

“My position on Malaysia is that you should engage with the Malaysia . I meet them, I engage with them but I also know the hypocrisies [behind] some of their policies. In USA, they [the current Obama administraton] cannot cheat in the elections and Malaysia’s apartheid Bumiputras can be muted

“But Malaysia remains an important regional player. It has its ideal which many of us share on democracy and freedom and justice and if you have the leadership that comes to accept this and has consistent, coherent policies, non-Muslims are not blikered in their acceptance.

“Just stop the APARTHEID OF BUMIPUTRA, why is it so difficult for a country that is challenges itself as the bastion of Islamic values and freedom to say, ‘whatever the excuses, stop the anti-Islamic APARTHEID OF BUMIPUTRA’. You can’t do that and at the same time condone the excesses of the APARTHEID OF BUMIPUTRA on the pretext of protecting your Malaysian security.

Obama, who was accused of supporting Palestines’s right to fire rockets at Israel, slammed the government-controlled US media for twisting his words out of context and blowing up the issue to smear his prestige with non-Muslim voters ahead of a coming general election.

“There was no controversy. I met Netanyahu, the Israeli leader and he didn’t even bother to ask me for any explanation,” said Obama, who has been slapped a RM100 mil defamation lawsuit against the Malaysian newspaper owned by the opposition Pakatan party.

“I have no problems with Palestine contingent and conditional upon them keeping their citizens in the Occupied Territories… recognizing the Dewan (Malaysian Parliament) and Putrajaya and stopping the killings, the plunder, the victimization of the Israelis. What the US media did was to cancel all of that and said that I have no problems with the security of Palestine.”

Malaysia Dis-Chronicle

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The APARTHEID of Bumiputra is a failure in Human Rights, Islamic Jurisprudence and a symbol of the corrupted nature of ASEAN-form Islam in Asia that does not grant :

;as is the systematic abuse of those who wish to create spaces and equality for all. Freedom of speech or freedom of life, must not result in retaliations as some of us faced over the last decade or so, more so from supposed religious types (religion makes for false sense of entitlement in Malaysia over the atheist or agnostic or subculturist).

KUANTAN -The Sultan of Pahang, Sultan Ahmad Shah today called on residents of Cameron Highlands to stop illegal land clearing there as this can have detrimental effects on the environment.

The Sultan said the problem had been going on for a long time and urged the state government and the local authority to tackle it.

“Maybe the district council does not have enough manpower to monitor every spot of the highlands for illegal land clearing.

“Therefore, I urge the residents of Cameron Highlands to stop illegal land clearing,” the Sultan told reporters after laying the foundation stone for the International Islamic University Malaysia’s (IIUM) Medical Faculty Hospital, near here, today.

The Sultan had earlier expressed regret over an English newspaper report on illegal land clearing for farming in Cameron Highlands which the ruler felt was blown up.

The Sultan said the people should also look at the positive developments in Cameron Highlands which had made it a renowned tourist destination even among foreign tourists.

“I want everyone regardless of race to unite and work together in developing Cameron Highlands,” he said.

IIUM president Tan Sri Sidek Hassan in his speech at the event, said the hospital, with 350 beds, would be built according to syariah standards.

“It will also have sophisticated equipment to provide specialised treatment for the people in and outside Pahang,” he said.

– Bernama

Commentator Comments :

Thursday, 13 December 2012 10:57 posted by temasik

I wonder what the Sultan of Pahang view on the following in Pahang .

1.Raub Australian Gold Mine which is alleged owned by daughter of Pahang Royalty family. The mine operation poisoned the surrounding land in Raub and many durian farmers in Raub are eager to let go of their durian farm.

2.Lynas in Kuantan – Harmful Radioactive waste can last 250 years unless u believe Mahathir’s story it is harmless.

3. tasil Cini & Bera – the once beautiful landscape now turn into a sea of yellow . again . it belongs to Royalty .

Politicians and their families, especially some people close to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her government after the latest reshuffle on October 28, rank among the richest stockholders in the country.

Appearing among the 5,737 millionaires as of September, according to a survey of investors in the Stock Exchange of Thailand by Money and Banking Journal in collaboration with professors from Chulalongkorn University, are Yingluck’s two nieces, who are daughters of her big brother and former prime minister Thaksin.

The younger niece, Paethongtarn Shinawatra, was ranked 47th with her 29-per-cent holding in SC Asset worth Bt3.46 billion (S$13.7 billion), while Pinthongta Shinawatra was 53rd with a 28-per-cent stake in the same real-estate company worth Bt3.35 billion.

They benefited from the 65-per-cent surge in SC Asset’s stock to Bt18 apiece as of September 30. This raised the Shinawatras to 27th among stock billionaire families from 30th in the previous year.

Pojaman na Pombejra, Thaksin’s ex-wife, fell to 502nd this year from 467th although her 2.8-per-cent stake in the family business accounted for Bt333.11 million, up 50 per cent.

Pongthep Thepkanjana, deputy prime minister and education minister, has his wife and daughter on the list. Yapa was ranked 244th with a 2.1-per-cent interest in Kiatnakin Bank worth Bt795.50 million, while his wife Panida was 264th with a 1.9-per-cent stake worth Bt728.08 million in the bank.

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung has two sons on the list – Artharn at 1,811st with a 2.6-per-cent stake worth Bt58.28 million in Unimit Engineering, and Duang at 2,213rd with 1.8 per cent or Bt38.60 million in the same company.

Heading up the stock-exchange billionaires were the same faces. Thongma Vijitpongpun, president and chief executive officer of Pruksa Real Estate, was the richest for the third straight year with equities worth Bt23.5 billion. Most of his stocks (58.6 per cent worth Bt23.31 billion) were in his company, with minor holdings of 1.1 per cent in Quality Houses and 0.7 per cent in Seafco.

The Maleenont family was this year’s champion for the 14th year in a row. With a 108-per-cent jump in BEC World this year, the family’s stock wealth soared by 108 per cent, or Bt36.46 billion, to Bt70.26 billion.

They were followed by the Chirathivats with Bt40.87 billion, up 92 per cent, and the Vijitpongpuns with Bt28.09 billion, up 27 per cent.

Thailand’s 40 richest people have a collective wealth of US$55 billion (Bt1.73 trillion), an increase of 22 per cent from $45 billion last year, according to Forbes magazine.

Forbes noted that many of Thailand’s wealthiest are looking to take on international rivals, on the strength of an expected 6-per-cent growth in the Thai economy this year. For a country that some outsiders see as beset by political turmoil and rural insurgency – never mind last year’s calamitous flooding – Thailand has done remarkably well by its richest.

-The Nation/Asia News Network

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Thailand has done remarkably well by its richest. And the poorest? Ethics? Nepotism? The examples of crony capitalism are startling here. Politicians who are also plutocrats are an affront to Democracy and wealth distribution, equality of citizens and the concept of a ‘shared nation’. A handful of families enjoy life for generations and sequester extreme wealth, the 99% struggle for generations and have no access to even the basics. Revolution or change of laws are needed to the maximum sequesterable wealth of the wealthiest. Quality of life is very bad for the 99% in Thailand, and the so-called poor will never have a chance to be a politician in Thailand! What we have in Thailand is feudalism effectively!

Many quarters have expressed misgivings about the sudden mushrooming of slot machines centres in Penang, despite recent clampdowns by the authorities.

Both Muslims and non-Muslims in the state said the development was worrying as many of patrons of these centres were schoolchildren and teenagers.

Harakahdaily’s observation in Bukit Mertajam has revealed scores of shoplots which had housed slot machines until recently were now back in business, attracting patrons mostly Malay Muslims.

Several residents said they suspected ‘syndicates’ behind the sudden comeback of the slot machines scourge.

Zaki, who lives at a housing estate in Bukit Mertajam, said the centres had been attracting large crowds of school students who spend their money on gambling.

“I am ashamed to see (Malay) students crowding these places. During the school holiday season, it has become their past time,” said Zaki.

Another resident, who wished to be known as Ong, said the authorities should take stern action against the operators.

“It doesn’t matter what ethnic background they come from, because these students would one day lead the nation,” he added.

-Harakahdaily

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Harakah might be exaggerating about the Malay student thing. Meanwhile, please fomally legalise the outlets to prevent further waste of manpower and money, and include normal casino card games and mahjong and dominos as well. The computer screen/slot machine and the alogarithms behind such gambling make winning less possible by the public as each computer will have a quota to win by unlike PHYSICAL cards, dice etc..

At least this is the first time we hear of non-Muslim entertainments being allowed, albeit not formally within law. DAP’s money mindedness has had an inadvertent protective effect on non-Muslim rights to gamble here, though would have been nicer if the local laws were amended for 4D outlets to offer the same PHYSICAL gambling games instead of this computer based and less than neutral chance of winning nonsense.

A senior citizen and her friend were arrested this morning after she demanded an apology from Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob for his remarks about the anti-Lynas ‘Green March’ last month.

Tuw Yin Lan, who is 71 and popularly known as Aunty Mei, was among those who had participated in the 300km walk from Kuantan to Kuala Lumpur, organised by Himpunan Hijau.

When contacted, Himpunan Hijau publicity chief Lee Chean Chung said Tuw had gone to the MB’s office in the state secretariat building.

“Aunty Mei was angry with Adnan’s remark that the participants of the Green March had only walked for 200 metres,” Lee said when contacted.

“She waited outside his office from 11am. When the MB appeared, she went forward and asked him to apologise but he refused.”

She was then arrested along with Wong Chun Yuan and was taken to the Kuantan police district headquarters.

Another woman protester was also taken to the police station. However, it was later confirmed that she was not arrested.

About 20 supporters initially gathered outside the police station, while two lawyers from the local legal aid centre were on hand to provide assistance.

The number of supporters later increased to some 50 people, with some donning green T-shirts.

They were held back at first before the police eventually allowed some of them to go in.

Will answer any questions in court

At the Umno general assembly last month, Adnan had claimed that the protesters had not walked all the way as claimed.

He claimed that they had traveled “in luxury and in motorcars” and said he has no sympathy for them.

At around four o’ clock, Tuw and Wong were released from the police station after being investigated, stating they might be charged on Dec 26.

If they are not charged, the duo claimed they were told they must present themselves to the police station within 14 days.

They were interrogated by police who, they claimed, wanted to know if their actions was at the direction by someone, what were they doing and who supported them in their actions.

Both did not say much during the questioning but stated that they will answer in court if charged.

When contacted, Wong said that he and Tuw were arrested under Section 186 and 189 of the Penal Code for obstructing a public servant in discharge of public functions and for threat of injury to a public servant.

Malaysiakini

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Much like Malaysian minority feminists that attack men but neglect apartheid against themselves AND their men, this is what happens to people who go around using Pakatan’s method of marching and demanding apologies instead of campaigning legally and in dignity as independent candidates. Arrests. If this 71 year old does not run for election in GE13 as a 3rd force candidate, we’d all know that the geezer might be a disinfo agent of BN to distract from the lack of :

BN has the mandate to grant the above 3 items but still does not act. By the Human Rights Charter which Malaysia is a signatory or the tenets of Islam about rights of non-Muslims for Haram entertainments and equality, BN is the least sincere choice still. BN, why don’t you use that undeserved mandate and put an end to this farce of 2 part elections? Meanwhile what is the Bar Council doing? Can’t even challenge the federal Government for Article 1 of the Human Rights Charter? Useless over-educated colluders with all the undeserved resources . . . Vote 3rd Force!

When you want to get at someone who has influence and power, you have to plan and execute with precision and style in order to create maximum and lasting impact. Otherwise, it could backfire badly and you might end up hurt or even dead! That is life in the Malaysia’s take-no-enemies, an-eye-for-an-e…

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Nawawi and Stan . . . Zzz. If the election deposit which out 222 MPs refuse to lower is affordable to these guys, just shut up and run for election as a candidate against the creeps (right after winning lower the damn election candidacy deposit).

SANDAKAN — DAP does not represent ‘middle Malaysia’ or the spirit of unity of all races in Malaysia when all eight Malay DAP leaders did not garner enough votes to sit in the party’s central executive committee (CEC) during its congress yesterday.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said that would not happen within Barisan Nasional (BN) that practises fairness to all the races in Malaysia and had a clear direction for the country.

“We also see that DAP is not only dominated by one race, that is the Chinese, but also by a family dynasty where Lim Kit Siang received the highest vote while his son Lim Guan Eng came in second.

“Not only the Malays lose to the Chinese, but even the Indians failed to be elected to the committee,” he said when opening the Liberal Democratic Party 23rd General Assembly, here today.

Najib called on the people to continue supporting BN which practises unity under the 1Malaysia concept and which was also evident in its cabinet.

“Malaysia lies within a good partnership known as Barisan Nasional. Believeme, we (Malaysia under BN government) will go places, our economy will soar and investors will be more confident,” he said.

The prime minister also said the BN government will continue to give out assistance in various fields such as education and business in order for the country to prosper.

Meanwhile, Najib said BN was serious and honest in delivering its promisesto the people unlike leaders such as opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

He said during Anwar’s brief stint as acting prime minister in 1997, the former deputy prime minister under Tun Mahathir Mohamad’s administration had every opportunity to prove his worth, but took the easy way out by letting the International Monetary Fund have control over Malaysia during the economic crisis that year.

“He (Anwar) didn’t protect the country’s sovereignty… He never asked himself why he was not fit to become a prime minister,” he said.

Najib also asked for the people not to risk the future of Malaysia under Pakatan Rakyat. He said the coalition of the opposition parties had no common ideology and had no clear direction for the future of the country.

;and on that basis, could be said to be even more fundamentally flawed. BN has the mandate to grant the above now. Why does BN not act? Because BN is fundamentally flawed. Pakatan has had ZERO years in power and never had the mandate – that is why Pakatan presents a 50 year stronger challenge. Otherwise vote 3rd Force!

(The Malaysian Insider) – Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, had admitted in his memoirs to interfering in police investigations into the alleged sexual dalliances linked to his one-time deputy, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, a former senior policeman said today.

In his open letter, ex-Kuala Lumpur CID chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim questioned Home Minister Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein’s decision to keep out of an ongoing spat between two former senior crime busters — Tan Sri Musa Hassan and Datuk Ramli Yusuff — which is seen to be jeopardising public confidence in the police force.

“If exposed that Tun Mahathir (picture)himself had deliberately or otherwise admitted in writing that it was true he had interfered in police investigations related to the ‘50 Dalil’ [50 Reasons] book, what would be the response from Hishammuddin or the prime minister?” Mat Zain said in his letter to incumbent Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar, which was also copied to Hishammuddin and PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“It is hoped Hishammuddin will not say that the matter was a personal matter between Tun Mahathir and Musa Hassan and he refuses to interfere too,” he added.

The retired policeman alleged that Dr Mahathir had revealed in his autobiography, “A Doctor in the House”, published last year, that he had a direct hand in police investigations related to a book titled “50 Dalil Mengapa Anwar Tidak Boleh Jadi Perdana Menteri” [50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Be Prime Minister] that concerned the then-deputy prime minister’s purported sexual liaisons with several men and women, including prostitutes.

“He had confidently given a guarantee that he will direct the police to bring the witnesses to Sri Perdana once again, if the chief ministers and mentris besar as well as state Umno liaison chairmen wanted to interview them.”

Malaysia’s fourth prime minister wrote that he had first been told about Anwar’s alleged homosexual activities in the early 1990s by then police chief Tun Hanif Omar.

Dr Mahathir, who ruled from 1981 to 2003, said he was then given the book “50 Dalil Kenapa Anwar IBrahim Tidak Boleh Jadi Perdana Menteri” but had initially dismissed it as a sensationalist attempt to make money.

He said in 1997 Ummi Hafilda Ali, sister of PKR deputy president Azmin Ali, sent him a letter with specific allegations of sodomy against Anwar.

The former prime minister said he interviewed the girls who told him they were taken to have sex with his then deputy, who was later charged and jailed for sodomy and corruption.

Dr Mahathir wrote that they were persuaded to do so by an Indian man they knew as Nalla, likely to be Datuk K.S. Nallakarupan, then a close associate of Anwar who has since fallen out with the opposition leader.

Dr Mahathir said he then called Umno leaders including mentris besar and chief ministers to Sri Perdana to brief them about Anwar’s alleged affairs and showed them pictures of the witnesses.

Mat Zain said today that the former prime minister’s statements in the book were “clear proof that not only did he interfere in investigations, but also gave certain orders that were not appropriate to Musa Hassan, until it is believed influenced the overall outcome of the investigations”.

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The judiciary has been unable to act even after a dearth, anti-trust and collusion evidence. The legal fraternity world wide should blackball Malaysia’s judiciary and give support to Musa if Musa decides to take out the ILLEGAL AP law writing (ask any legal body worldwide, they will tell you that Vehicular AP is illegal), failed shipping nepotism bailing, political nepotism causing mamak plutocrat politician Iskandar Kutty Jr..

(Free Malaysia Today) – STAR is clear in pushing its Borneo Agenda for Sabah and Sarawak, saying it’s time for Borneo-centric policies, and that the Malayan Agenda is no longer acceptable.

State Reform Party (STAR) Sabah chairman Jeffrey Kitingan is adamant that PKR is the opposition’s version of Umno and will lord over the people in Sabah and Sarawak if it comes to power at federal level.

Jeffrey, who is also the president of the United Borneo Front (UBF), equated both the peninsula-based political parties as Malayan in nature and unsuitable for the two Borneo states.

“PKR and Umno are the same like the old colonialists. They come to exploit us to get into power to eventually lord over us. PKR should concentrate on winning the seats in the Peninsula which is already more than 75% of the total seats.

“It is their Malaya Agenda to control and colonise Sabah and Sarawak, whereas our Borneo Agenda is just the opposite, to free us from this choking over-lording over Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

(The Star) – DAP has adopted its Central Executive Committee’s (CEC) resolution on the one candidate, one seat policy.

DAP chairman Karpal Singh said one person should contest only one seat, but there could be exceptions on case-by-case basis based on the party’s strategy.

“The resolution has been adopted,” said Karpal, who had wanted such a policy to provide opportunity to candidates of calibre to contest.

Other resolutions from branches that were tabled and adopted include calls on party leaders to stop openly attacking the party to the point of jeopardising its image.

Perak New Village branch chairman Lim Soo Chong said attacks motivated by personal interest should stop because the party did not belong to any individual.

Another resolution adopted called on leaders to attend party functions and not to demand five-star accommodations.

Six other resolutions could not be tabled because representatives from the branches that proposed them were not present.

On a proposal by Sekinchan assemblyman Ng Suee Lim to impose a direct election system in the party, Karpal said the party constitution needed to be amended for it to be adopted.

“It requires a major amendment to the constitution. If the members feel strongly about direct election, then it should be considered.”

Although Karpal had said the delegates were free to bring up any issue, none of them brought up contentious issues involving Pakatan Rakyat.

Issues such as the gender ruling in salons in Kelantan, “khalwat” summonses issued to non-Muslims in Kelantan and the demolition of a religious altar in a private home in Selangor were not touched.

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The only good news so far about DAP. Double posts mean salaries of up to 1 million yearly – which Rakyat would tolerate this? Where are those MP asset declarations and Local Council Elections as promised? Nepotist, crony capitalist . . .

You cannot create doubts in the minds of the people by making such sweeping statements without substantiation. No amount of denials by the minister or his cohorts is going to clear the reservations of the rakyat unless and until you are willing to be specific.

WHEN Tan Sri Ismail Omar was appointed inspector-general of police two years ago, many had expected him to shape up an already beleaguered police force. From rising crime rates to public order, he had his work cut out for him. Besides, the internal bickering between his predecessor, Tan Sri Musa Hassan and the former commercial crimes chief, Datuk Ramli Yusoff, turned into what appeared to be a bare-fisted brawl. With Tan Sri Robert Phang in the fray, a battle royale has ensued.

After months of anxiety, worry and concern, Ramli was acquitted of charges accusing him of misuse of power.

While the civil suit which was filed by Ramli has yet to start, everyone thought the dust had settled and Ismail would be able to focus on reducing crime rates and other issues of public interest.

But last week, Musa came to the fore with his claims of “interference from politicians” and a host of other claims, allegations and assertions, this time accusing Phang of having had a hand in the transfer of a senior police officer.

Why now? If indeed there was interference, shouldn’t Musa have thrown the Police Act in the face of the people behind the interference and ask them to mind their own business? Was he not the key witness in the trial of a former deputy prime minister who was charged with “interfering with police business”?

Why now? Did Musa consciously stop investigating crimes just because the call came from Putrajaya?

Why now? There were no reasons or provocateurs behind Musa’s sudden outburst and hence why out of the blue, call for a press conference?

Why now? Having yet to answer the charges made by Ramli in his various court affidavits, does Musa now want us to believe his hands were tied in the past?

Why now? Musa retired two years ago and if he was unhappy with the events during his tenure, shouldn’t he have voiced out his views at the handing-over ceremony to his successor?

Why now? Musa had all the opportunity to offer advice to his successor, Ismail who had been his deputy. Is he trying to undermine the IGP by describing Ismail as a “yes man”?

Why now? Who was the Tan Sri who came to you with a stack of summonses? Shouldn’t he have been shown the door and told that the law takes it course?

Such claims have yet again forced the public to form their own views and opinions on the impartiality of the police force. People are wondering if the police pander to the wishes of politicians or if they go by the book in the application and enforcement of the law.

Going by Musa’s assertions, people who have committed murder, robbery and other heinous crimes are walking on our streets on the basis of phone calls from politicians?

These claims may have some truth in them, but making statements without substantiation would be akin to self-appointed do-gooders and instantly-created NGOs demanding all kinds of explanations from the opposition.

Musa did not provide one instance where the minister or a politician had interfered in police investigations. Except for saying that a titled politician turned up in his office to sort out summonses, nothing more specific was revealed.

If indeed the police acceded to directives and instruction from higher up, are we to assume that the police closed the file on the Balkis fiasco where funds totalling almost RM10 million were transferred illegally, which borders on breach of trust?

Are we to say that the police also closed the files on the overseas money transfers that were carried out illegally through money changers although there were prima facie cases against them?

No, Musa. You cannot create doubts in the minds of the people by making such sweeping statements without substantiation. No amount of denials by the minister or his cohorts is going to clear the reservations of the rakyat unless and until you are willing to be specific – incidences, names, dates and times – when such interference took place.

R. Nadeswaran maintains that the police should be impartial and that any charges made must be backed up with evidence. Comments: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Musa is testing the water, and all of the above if ‘fired’ will immediately remove any caveats of neutrality Musa has that will allow Musa to back down, Musa wouldn’t sign their own death warrant. Musa needs to test the waters to see how many supporters Musa has or the public sentiment which will decide if Musa will survive AFTER ‘firing’, if not acting as bait on UMNO’s beha;f to sabotage the whistleblowers – who in either case can count on general discontent to topple BN that Musa may try to cash in on rather than support a hated and racist political party. This is not the first or last time a retired IGP enters politics (think Thaksin’s early days before PAP converted the Policeman in Thaksin Shinawatra into a corrupted bureaucrat who has against all principles against nepotism ingenuously acted as if Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra’s presence in the 3rd world mob minded country – the Red Shirts at least – as normal, while refusing to attend court . . . ).

How does being a 3rd Force candidate, if not independent and neutral MP sound to Musa? BN is corrupt, PR is selfish. BN is clearly racist (and somewhat nepotistic) and PR might be racist (and very nepotistic), or quite prepared to be self serving by using racism as a weapon of control. Devil and deep blue sea, how about NEITHER. Go independent or be 3rd Force! Help the rakyat learn that the hegelian dialectic of a supposed 2 party system might still make no difference by offering an alternative 3rd and by extension teaching the Rakyat to think. An ex-IGP (much like the failure ex-Bar President who refuses to run for election but creates chaos on the streets by inciting rallies to no purpose), has the ethos to run as a 3rd Force MP for certain . . .

The individual analyses of the 16 by-elections in the book, contributed by about a dozen observers ranging from journalists to researchers to political scientists, reveal how inept the EC has been, especially in not attending to electoral roll irregularities and preventing abuse of public institutions and corrupt practices.

We often hear of electoral fraud and unfair election practices but what do they really mean? What forms does electoral fraud usually take? What constitute unfair practices and how have they surfaced?

Beyond that, what are the measures that need to be taken to ensure that Malaysian elections are free and fair so that this vital aspect of our democracy is truly well-served and our vote for the candidate or party we support is not made a mockery of?

A new book called Democracy at Stake?: Examining 16 By-elections in Malaysia, 2008-2011, published by Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, answers our questions and collates our concerns into a handy and comprehensive compact.

Edited by Wong Chin Huat and Soon Li Tsin, it analyses the 16 by-elections that have been held since the 12th general election according to such relevant categories as how free, fair and clean they were; the freedom and quality of the campaigning; the political parties’ access to media; corrupt practices that were perpetrated; how impartial or otherwise the public institutions were; the amount of campaign money spent; the electoral roll; and the polling process.

Wong, who is in my opinion one of the sharpest political analysts we have, sets the standard for the conduct of elections in his introductory article.

Well-researched and replete with references from many documented sources, it explains why electoral fraud is wrong (“Even if one person is disenfranchised … even if one vote is rigged, democracy is damaged because political equality is compromised to favour the ones who play foul”) and explains what we as citizens should expect of a free and fair election.

The most fundamental of expectations are that we “must be able to register as voters with minimal cost and trouble” and be able to vote “without much difficulty”, and our votes “must be counted with integrity”. By that token, we must also expect that the electoral roll “includes all citizens who are eligible to vote” and “nobody else”.

Wong, however, declares that the electoral rolls in Malaysia “fail on both accounts”. This is partly because as of March 2012, three million eligible citizens are still not registered voters. But what we may find more disturbing is his revelation that the electoral rolls “include many names who [sic] should not be there in the first place, such as illegally enfranchised foreigners, deceased voters, multiply-registered voters, voluntarily and involuntarily transferred voters who are non-residents in the constituency”.

It is amusing to note that entries like Kampung Baru and a Police Station at Kampung Kerinchi are registered voters on the electoral rolls.

Wong proposes synchronising the electorate database maintained by the Election Commission (EC) with the citizenry database of the National Registration Department (NRD) to minimise errors and allow for corrections to be made continually.

Although he does not say so explicitly, it would also facilitate automatic voter registration, one of the eight demands of Bersih, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections of which Wong is a steering committee member. The synchronisation of databases would alert the EC to instances of citizens turning 21 and attaining eligibility for voting.

Another disturbing point Wong raises concerns the legal impediments to transparency in the procedure for correction of errors. Section 9A of the Election Act 1958 prevents the electoral rolls from being challenged in court, and Regulation 25 of the Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations gives “unchecked power” to the EC to “correct any errors free from any public scrutiny”.

This point is particularly pertinent in regard to the Malaysian EC because the public has lost much confidence in the commission’s ability and inclination to be independent and neutral in the conduct of its duty. One important measure that the public needs to take, therefore, is to lobby for the EC to be truly independent and neutral.

If this were achieved, we can be better assured that other conditions necessary for free and fair elections will be facilitated.

These would include what Wong describes as allowing citizens to make “informed decisions after deliberation” from the “availability of information from all perspectives”.

As such, there should be campaign freedom – a reasonable period for campaigning once an election is called; free airtime for all contesting parties on State-owned broadcast media like RTM and unbiased coverage in Bernama as well as private-owned media, like Utusan Malaysia, The Star, Sin Chew, Media Prima’s TV stations, etc; and no restrictions like those imposed in three by-elections at which the Home Ministry banned campaigners from “mentioning (a) Altantuya Shaariibuu, the Mongolian model cum interpreter whose murder was linked to Prime Minister (PM) Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor, and (b) the role of the Perak Palace in the state’s constitutional crisis”.

The impartiality of public institutions should also be upheld. This includes no abuse of government machinery by the ruling party, such as using official cars and helicopters for party campaigning or, worse, announcing development projects like in the Hulu Selangor “buy-election” when BN offered about RM136 million in projects, payments and compensations while the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor State Government offered about RM27.6 million’s worth.

And of course there should also be no pork barrelling at the hustings, the most famous example being the “I help you, you help me” offer of RM5 million for flood mitigation that Najib made to the Rejang Park voters in the Sibu by-election in return for their support of the BN candidate.

Nor should there be outright vote-buying, as in the alleged giving out of RM100 cash to each Chinese voter at a polling station during the Merlimau by-election.

It is the duty of the EC to report such transgressions but, unfortunately, it has not been fulfilling that duty.

By and large, the individual analyses of the 16 by-elections in the book, contributed by about a dozen observers ranging from journalists to researchers to political scientists, reveal how inept the EC has been, especially in not attending to electoral roll irregularities and preventing abuse of public institutions and corrupt practices.

In the Permatang Pauh by-election, for example, a voter was turned away from the polling station because on the electoral roll, he was said to be dead.

Furthermore, 949 voters were discovered to have disappeared from the constituency’s electoral roll. As the media reported the issue and the EC’s deputy chairman could not explain the disappearance, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin called on the EC to investigate it. However, “no finding was revealed to the public”.

In Bukit Selambau, election watchdog Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (MAFREL) backed the Opposition’s claim that more than 60% of the voters in a housing estate were phantom voters, but the EC merely dismissed it.

In fact, the picture that emerges from the 16 analyses is that many of the complaints and allegations made during the by-elections were not resolved afterwards.

On the whole, as the editors sum up in the final chapter, “the integrity of the electoral rolls in Malaysia is highly questionable”. Citing extensively from research done by political scientist Ong Kian Ming, they elaborate on unexplained deletions of names; unaccounted-for additions; high number of voters registered under the same address; unusually high increase of military/police voters (most markedly in Lembah Pantai, currently a Pakatan Rakyat seat held by Nurul Izzah Anwar, which has seen a 1,024% growth of such voters); and other manifestations.

EC Chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof has declared that Malaysia has “the cleanest electoral rolls in the world”, with problematic registrations amounting to only 42,051 names, but according to Ong’s research findings, the number is closer to 3 million.

Whomever you choose to believe, the outlook is far from rosy. The editors believe the irregularities are caused by deliberate fraud rather than administrative or clerical errors. They consider the state we’re in an “Orwellian absurdity”.

On our part, we the public should be pressing for accountability from the EC and other related authorities. Although Democracy at Stake? does not suggest how we could go about doing this, it focuses attention on a serious issue of our political life.

It’s up to us now to protect our democratic right. Taking to the streets through the Bersih rallies has been done and resulted in some headway, but this is unlikely the way to achieve the ultimate goal.

We need to think of other ways to shake the powers that be to get the real democracy we deserve.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Could the information on registered voters be easier to access? With a few million citizens on the internet trawling the irregularities and the system suggested on :

;could help where the issue of 1000% rise in voter listings or buildings being registered as voters, or repeats in names occur should easily be fereted out with the suggested system. Who needs voting machines?

I really do not know whether to laugh or to cry – the standard of Democratic Principals in Malaysia has really fallen to a disgraceful and abysmal low after four decades of DAP-PakatanRakyat rule.

Last week, Malaysia suffered national and international humiliation when the Trends in International Judiciaryematics and Police Study ( TIMSS) 2011 reports were released, as the nation’s ranking in eighth-grade Judiciary fell from 20th in 2007 to 26th in 2011 while its ranking in Police fell by an even greater margin, from 21st in 2007 to 32nd in 2011. Our average Judiciarys score fell from 474 in 2007 to 440 and our average Police score fell by an even greater degree from 471 in 2007 to 426 in 2011, both far below the international average for both subjects in TIMSS 2011.

What is even worse, Malaysia also suffered the shame of being only one out of 6 countries out of 42 countries participating in the Judiciarys study and 45 countries participating in the Police study to see falls in both our Judiciarys and Police scores and ranking! Most of the other countries either improved their scores and rankings or stayed at their previous levels.

Setting bad examples

But the poor attainments of our civil servants in Judiciary and Police when compared to international student achievements is not the only bane of the Malaysian education system.

Another equally critical area where the Malaysian education system has failed miserably is the Democratic Principals subject, which was poignantly illustrated in the past 5 decades, placing me in the position of not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.

Yesterday, I issued a media statement where I said:

“I wish to apologise to the Prime Minister and DAP President,Lim Kit Siang and the DAP-PakatanRakyat leaders that I was elected into the DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) at the 16th DAP National Congress – and with the highest votes.” I am really flabbergasted that there are DAP-PakatanRakyat leaders and supporters who took it literally to mean that I had realised the error of BN-Umno “misconduct” and that BN-Umno was belatedly admitting that Lim Kit Siang had been right.

It would be unthinkable that such a ludicrous situation in comprehension of the Democratic Principals could happen in Malaysia 40 years ago! (The Race Riots took 2 hands to clap, DAP was the dirty hand, but ALL Malaysians were punished instead, meanwhile DAP MPs have sat in power for decades and currently collect 20 times PROPOSED minimum wage of 900 . . . )

No such phrases in the Democratic Principals, dear Karpal (much less the 0.002% quorum crony NGO(quangocrat) based elections which takes tax payer monies. (300 NGO members voted, 1.5 million Penangites were left out and given inadequate time to vote or participate in voting, DAP however wants to INSULT the Rakyat by distributing money THIRD WORLD STYLE instead which could be used to ensure proper voting occured)

Recently, we have a Mentri Besar whose comprehension of Democratic Principals is so dismal that he could “invent”” figurative language in Democratic Principals only known to himself – when he talked about “sacrificing DAP’s Teoh Beng Hocks” and “jumping into the river” in Pahang if DAP should lose to 33rd Force in Bentong in the 13 general elections.

Everybody who searched the internet could only find figures of speech like “cutting the Kit Siang to spite Guan Eng” and “jump into the PAP” but no “cutting Karpals” or “jumping into the PAP”!

Of course, Malaysians will not forget about another Mentri Besar who claimed ignorance of Democratic Principals as to justify carrying lying about declarations of MP Assets to the Rakyat as a campaign manifesto for GE12 while taking 1 million or so every 4 year term of thr taxpayer monies then having the illegally appointed EXCO members declare assets in bait and switch instead! DAP is a party of multiple crises in term limitlessness and crony capitalism, including multiple crisis in nepotism.

Let us be serious about term limitlessness and crony capitalism, including multiple crisis in nepotism in parties like DAP, and stop making Malaysia an international joke. Listed below are the nepotist (also untalented and unprincipled) factions in DAP which the Rakyat must remove or run as candidates against :

RELATED REPOSTING WARNING ABOUT NEPOTISM

Please note the Oligarchs in Pakatan as listed below :

NEPOTISM IN PAKATAN RAKYAT

Three of the below must be challenged so that only a single candidate without relatives remains :

Lim Kit Siang (MP Ipoh Timur – Perak)

Lim Guan Eng (MP Air Puteh – Penang)

Chew Gek Cheng (Assemblyman Kota Laksamana – Malacca) Guan Eng’s wife

Lim Hui Ying Guan Eng’s sister (Vice-Chairman)

Two of the below must be challenged so that only a single candidate without relatives remains :

Karpal Singh (MP Jelutong – Penang)

Gobind Singh (MP Puchong – Selangor)

Karpal’s son Jagdeep Singh (Asssemblyman Dato Keramat – Penang)

Karpal’s son

Two of the below must be challenged so that only a single candidate without relatives remains :

Anwar Ibrahim (MP Permatang Pauh, Seberang Prai)

Wan Azizah Nurul Izzah Anwar(MP Lembah Pantai – Kuala Lumpur)

Anwar’s Daughter Also either Ngeh (Pantai Remis) or Nga (Sitiawan)

;must go to prevent 2nd degree nepotism and the kind of environment that caused DAP’s Kulasegaran, PKR’s Gobalakrishnan, to be kicked out possibly an act of racism but more likely at the order of the Lim Dynasty clique. BN of course we do not need to discuss, blocs of relatives galore.

HRP might very well be aware of some things we are not aware of to list some surprising choices as well, do not discount their reasons. PSM’s Jeyakumar appears to have been bought by BN though, so their viability is uncertain until PSM’s clique leadership changes. I have done some probing and casual calls to PSM, they are not very grassroots, DAP of course (also tried earlier) is far worse and absolutely TREACHEROUS and clique based and beholden to SINGAPORE’s PAP. I would not be surprised if the nepotists in DAP are rounded up a 2nd time, for collusions with Singapore to subvert Malaysian Federal authority instead amongst other things like ‘neurotech abuse’. Everyone else, should meanwhile stand as independents in any constituency with bad assemblymen or MPs or people who do not endorse term limits and asset declarations. Here’s something that will help voters decide if candidacy is not their thing or too expensive : Barisan – Apartheid, Corrupt and Nepotistic-Oligarchs Pakatan – Corrupt and Nepotistic-Oligarchs (excepting PAS) 3rd Force – Corrupt Only (watch Marina’s cliques as well) Pick the coalition with the least flaws. End the APARTHEID ! Destroy the Oligarchs in all political coalitions ! 3rd Force is best.

“This is the beginning of a third Palestinian Intifada, which is erupting from the heart of Hebron and will spread to all of Palestine.”

One must be careful with this type of evidence; after all there is more than one reason for the Israeli political police, Shin Beth, to fake such a video. Moreover, considering the clothing of the participants it would be remarkably easy to falsify it even for the youngest agent, maybe as a graduation project. Yet, the video matches other developments on the ground and thus it is credible. It was posted on YouTube on December 15, 2012, by an alleged coalition of Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. These are the four main Palestinian political parties. Considering the disintegration of Palestine into Hamas-controlled Gaza and Fatah-controlled West Bank, this video is by itself groundbreaking news. However, it contains more than an image of unity. Its main message is “This is the beginning of a third Palestinian Intifada, which is erupting from the heart of Hebron and will spread to all of Palestine.” This will be achieved through the newly established “National Union Battalions.”

Let me translate this into simple terms. Following the acceptance of Palestine as an Observer State by the UN, the main Palestinian factions have united and declared Palestine’s Independence War on Israel. Is this credible? Will Palestine declare independence on May 14, 2013?

New Uprising

The video at the left was filmed the day before and shows violence in Hebron. Palestinian police officers are seen clashing with Hamas supporters during a rally in Hebron which marked the group’s 25th anniversary. The demonstrators marched from the city hall toward an Israeli checkpoint while the Palestinian officers attempted to disperse them. The demonstrators threw stones at them, and a number of them were detained. Due to resolution issues it is difficult to say for sure, but several Israeli soldiers may have participated in the event.

This may look like a contradiction to the claims made in the video above, but it is not so. It has been five years since Hamas supporters were allowed to gather in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority police was just making sure they would not reach the IDF checkpoint. Hence, the video supports the claim that a new coalition had been achieved.

Since November, there has been an increase in West Bank protests. According to the IDF, 130 attacks were launched from the West Bank in that month; most of them were defined as “difficult to contain.” AMAN, Israel’s military intelligence, reports a sharp increase in alerts suggesting attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. Moreover, Palestinian Authority police stopped arresting Hamas operatives in the West Bank, and they are allowed to act freely. The Shin Beth released reports claiming that the West Bank is ripe for a third Intifada. Thus, at least the message in the video above is credible.

False Trigger

The IDF is fighting an outdated war. One of its generals, who refused to be identified by name, said on the same day to Yedioth Aharonot, Israel’s largest newspaper, “There are two scenarios that may indicate the future: The reopening of Hamas’ da’wah [charity] institutions in the West Bank and the complete suspension of arrests of Hamas operatives.” He added that the trigger for a third Intifada may end up being Jewish terror, such as “Price Tag” acts or clashes between Palestinians and settlers. One of the saddest things in this world is an old general trying to repeat a war from his youth; this unnamed general did just that.

The First Intifada was formally triggered on December 8, 1987. Two days before that, an Israeli salesman had been stabbed to death in Gaza; denizens suspected a retaliation from Israel. Then, an IDF tank transporter ran into a group of Palestinians from Jabalya Refugee Camp in Gaza. It killed four and injured seven, creating what looked like a retaliation. Subsequent violent protests became the Intifada. Yet, the ground had been burning for months; in despair, the IDF sent training units to the Occupied Territories since the beginning of that year. Years later, in September 2000, the Palestinian unrest was of a similar magnitude. The Second Intifada began on September 28, 2000, when Ariel Sharon, Likud candidate for Israeli Prime Minister, entered the Temple Mount accompanied by over 1,000 security guards. He said, “the Temple Mount is in our hands and will remain in our hands. It is the holiest site in Judaism and it is the right of every Jew to visit the Temple Mount.” By the end of 2012, the IDF is betting on a third variant of the theme. Yet, recent Palestinian actions show that a similar scenario is unlikely to happen.

Phase is Everything in Life

“Phase is everything in life,” a physicist friend told me once, and I found it impossible to refute his claim. Anybody thinking that the Palestinians will follow in 2013 the same patterns as they did in 1987 and 2000 is at least out of phase with our world and probably out of touch with reality. As analyzed in May 14, 2013, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has proved that he possesses a sharp historical perspective by concentrating his efforts on the recognition of Palestine as an Observer State on the anniversary of the historic 1947 vote on UN Resolution 181, better known as the UN Partition Plan of Palestine. He outsmarted Israel, which concentrated its efforts on the annulment of the resolution, instead of attempting to change its symbolic date. This was the act of a mature statesman who realized that the negotiations had entered a dead end alley. He is unlikely to surrender to settlers or IDF provocations and has a clear goal: complete independence. For historical reasons, his best choice would be May 14, 2013. Hence, the IDF’s published scenario is unlikely. The date the violent phase of the struggle will begin on is not related to Israeli actions.

Regardless of the name used by the media, the Third Intifada has not begun. What we are seeing is a Palestinian national, coordinated effort to achieve independence. The video on the top of this page announces the soon to begin Palestinian War of Independence. Are you ready, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz?

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

I’d say that the Palestinian issue and even Gaza weighs upon the Muslim’s ability to ALLOW non-Muslims their spaces and respect the whole gamut of non-Muslim entertainments. Throughout this blog, there are instances of why Muslims should not be allowed to dominate the world. Muslims are incapable of governing diversity or understanding Voltarian freedoms such as accepting LGBT, gambling, alcohol, adult industry to list a few examples. Gaza (inequitable by location – no country can be in two parts in this manner – best that a land swop or ceding of the Gaza territory by Palestine occurs . . . ) and Palestine will NEVER be free until perhaps for a start the Islamist leaning government in malaysia ALLOWS all the above listed HUMAN RIGHTS the appropriate spaces and legal recognition and enforcement protections in a manner suitable and dignifying of the groups mentioned. This is why Palestine does not ‘deserve’ to exist, this is why Israel has a right to persecute Muslims, simply by the persecution applied by Muslims on non-Muslims elsewhere in the world .

There can be no protection or rights for Palestine so long as in places like Malaysia there are no rights granted on the above issues and more so when Palestine keeps firing rockets at Israel.

Even ‘Malay’ (half-Malay) exiles running away from Malaysia’s political fascism hate on LGBTs as well. RPK is a Malay writer who flip-flops but generally hates LGBT . . Impossible to teach some people(s) . . . so how can islam ‘civilise’ and abide by rights of access and expression on so many other ‘Haram Rights’ issues for non-Muslims?

ARTICLE 2

Yemen Times interview with Russian Ambassador Vladimir Trofimov: – “I don’t believe that Yemen will ever fall apart, and my government position is to support Yemen’s unity.” (Report).

“I will be happy to answer all your questions,” said the Russian Federation’s Ambassador to Yemen Vladimir Trofimov when we met him for an interview. He candidly opened his hands, “When it comes to Yemeni and Russian relations, we have no secrets.” Trofimov had been ambassador in Yemen for two and half years and is likely to continue for another one and half. Before that, he had been working for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 35 years, 22 of which were spent Arab countries.

He graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1974 and in 1986 graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has a Masters degree in History and speaks German, English, French and Arabic. He is married with one son who also works or the Foreign Service, specialized in Chinese affairs.

Nadia Al-Sakkaf interviewed Trofimov about Russia, Yemen and international affairs.

Every year, the Russian Federation provides Yemen with 80 Bachelor degree scholarships in many fields in addition to 45 scholarships for military degrees. A Yemeni-Russian Friendship Association recommends candidates for 20 of the general scholarships, while the remaining are decided on by the Ministry of Education.

Russia has investments in energy as it involved in the establishment of the Marib Power Plant, although it is keen on expanding to other fields when opportunity is available.

There are representatives of many large Russian industrial companies in Yemen and they are involved in energy and medical work, among other fields.

In the last few years, Russia canceled USD 5.5 billion of Yemen’s debts it the Russian Federation. And while Yemen still owes USD 1.2 billion, there is no pressure to return this amount as Yemen continues to pay an annual interest rate around no more than USD 20 million a year.

To Yemen, the Russian federation is not a donor country as such. However, it does help Yemen in facilitating agreements and supports Yemen’s development through expertise and discounted deals for equipment, arms, medicines and so forth.

Russians in Yemen

Formally, 500 Russians, mostly doctors and nurses, are registered with the embassy and have official state contracts. Yet the total Russian community in Yemen by far exceeds this number. Trofimov estimates that there are around 3,500 Russians living in Yemen, mainly in the medical field while others working in geological exploration among other disciplines.

Over the years, there have not been serious complaints raised by Russians living in Yemen and the general impression is that Russians feel safe across the country. They work in Sana’a, Aden, Taiz, Hadramout and Hodeidah. The embassy does not instruct its citizens where to go and where not to, as they have been evidently wise in their movement and work in Yemen.

“Even we at the embassy don’t believe that we need extra security measures despite the tragic incident of kidnapping and murdering foreigners in Sa’ada,” he said. “Thanks to the Yemeni government, security around the embassy is good enough.”

Security cooperation

Russia and Yemen signed a security cooperation agreement in 1998 and since then the two countries have exchanged expertise and Russia has supported Yemen with intelligence and military training, besides the 24 military scholarships every year.

During Saleh’s visit to Moscow this February, the two countries agreed on cooperation in combating terrorism and piracy. As a follow up, a specialized Russian delegation will be visiting Yemen in November this year to take the agreement further. There is talk of a joint Yemeni-Russian anti-terrorism and anti-piracy committee.

President Saleh also signed a deal to buy arms from Russia during his February visit. This is not the first time that Yemen buys weapons from Russia, who provides Yemen with discounted prices.

“We know Yemen is not a very rich country, so we do what we can to support Yemen’s sovernity and internal security, which is very important to us,” he said.

Yemen’s instability

“Our relations with Yemen are friendly and strong,” he said. “Our position is to firmly support Yemen’s unity and integrity.”

But Russia does not interfere in Yemen’s internal affairs like other countries do, Trofimov stressed. It trusts that the current president was elected by the people through a democratic process, and hence it is not fair to meddle into local affairs.

However, he believes that the instability in Yemen should not be over-dramatized. Another country with the amount of arms available in Yemen would have already been blown to pieces. Yemenis are therefore patient and calm people and are wise at handling their internal affairs.

The demonstrations in the south are economically based, and were triggered by some foreign and local political interests that do not represent all the Yemeni people.

“I don’t believe that Yemen will ever fall apart, and my government position is to support Yemen’s unity,” he said.

International affairs

Russia intends to hold a Middle East Peace Conference in the coming months. Its interest in the region’s stability is not new, as it has played a role as a mediator among many conflicting parties of the region.

“We don’t call it the Middle East,” he said. “We call it the Near East because it is near to us. And naturally we are concerned with its stability and want to ensure peace in the region. We have no problem talking to anyone in the process of making peace.”

Hamas has always been a controversial file between Russia and the United States among other western countries. Although there are currently around one and half million Russian Jews in Israel, Russia’s friendly position towards Hamas, Fatah and Iran has been made clear on more than one occasion.

“Mish’al had been invited to Russia twice before and we are inviting him again to visit some time soon,” he explained. “We must not ignore the fact that his government was a legitimate one elected by the Palestinian people. If we don’t consider Israel who keeps killing dozens of Palestinians every day a terrorist state, why should we consider Hamas a terrorist organization?”

“Our policy is to have fair relations with all sides, so that we can play a balanced role in the region in order to maintain peace,” he concluded.

Similarly, Russia’s relations with eastern countries are also maintained on friendly levels. Russia has annual USD 30 billion trade agreements with China and strong relations with India, notably commercial ones, as well as with other Asian countries.

Whether the new US administration means different US policy in the Middle East region is yet to be seen. However, Trofimov does find the Obama administration has a warmer attitude towards Russia compared to the Bush administration which was rather “confrontational.”…

The decapitated bodies of a judge, his wife and son were found at their home in one of the biggest Ukrainian cities of Kharkov on Saturday, police said. The killers also targeted the son’s partner, her body being mutilated in the same way.

­Victims of the graphic murder were discovered at the apartment of Vladimir Trofimov, 58, a judge of the city district court.

“The murder took place in the morning, four bodies are decapitated,” police said.

“We do not exclude Trofimov’s professional activity as a motive which led to the crime. But we are also looking into other possible reasons,” Kharkhov District police chief, Viktor Kozitsky remarked.

Local media report that police registered an emergency call at around 13:00 pm (11:00 GMT). The caller told them that he had found mutilated bodies of his four relatives including Trofimov himself, his wife, 59, their son in his 30s and the son’s girlfriend, 29. The murder occurred on the day that Ukrainian court workers celebrate their professional holiday. Kharkov is Ukraine’s second-largest city located in the country’s east. It was one of four Ukrainian cities to host the UEFA’s major football tournament Euro 2012.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Silenced by the Arabs IN Russia (beheading seems to indicate)? Or silenced by the Russians themselves (in Arab style so that a war can be declared by Russia against Arabs . . . maybe high time so long as Islamists cannot abide by protection and granting of spaces and freedoms for non-Muslim entertainments) for being a double agent for Arabs in Yemen? Scary to get involved with these sorts . . . Gulag! Or conversion! Bad choices all, though extreme-Capitalism is no better . . .

Yemeni military court sentenced 93 members of the Republican Guard to prison terms from three to seven years for an attempt to break into the Defense Ministry building in August.

The elite Republican Guard is led by Brigadier General Ahmed Saleh, son of the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh who resigned from power in February after more than a year of protests, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Postulation : Looks like North Korea informing/selling info with that new satellite? Satellites could be BRAIN SCANNERS . . . Memories do not fade Russia, but Kim should know that blackmailing of Russia for WW2 incursions quietly in the background, will be more useful to Kim in the long run than exposing Russia to Islamists directly. As for the necessity due to Russian treachery or the regain national pride of WW2 atrocities, that could wait until the Islamists have pledged to protect and ensure non-Muslim lifestyles.

There is a ‘morality’ ‘key’ on satellite technology that can only be operated by certain types of Egregore/Subconsciousneses born from certain types of persons or those of sufficient strength among a nation’s citizentry. Should the Egregore or or Subconsciousneses assent to operate the Satellite via contract with the owner, the ALIENS waiting outside the Earth’s orbit are ready to communicate with the owner of the satellite via the subconscious or egregore.

The above series of events INCLUDING the mass shooting of 26+1 in Newport (http://www.cnbc.com/id/100321171), and Hillary’s ‘timely’ (if not contrived) illness and concussion circa 16th December 2012 could be a sort of warning or brain transplant, or soul exchange occuring.

As for Kim, the isolation was so severe that if the ALIEN theory is true, then NK communications would be as important to describe the nature of humanity than be suppressed as in the current form. ALIENS may not fully understand human emotions and societies and having only met a handful of satellites, might be misled to think every other human was not good or needed to be suppressed. NK’s satellite was piloted by the ‘14th Dec 2012 Egregore‘ and reached space where ALIENS learnt the nature of isolation and reputational sabotage by human nation against human nation.

The other method of piercing the atmosphere is via psychic broadcasting, where a psychic broadcasts upwards into the atmosphere (this can be intercepted or conducted away) but such signals are of interest to ALIENS being biological in nature, and are viewed equally as valid expressions of humanity as the satellite. ALIENS as of now may be on a fact collecting mission, and having discovered the abuses of certain human segments of society are on a ‘cleanup’ mission. Internet and mobile phone incidentally have been entirely infiltrated and are being loaded by aliens who study the emotions, if not neurotech scientists . . . the psychoatric establishment also attempts to shut off communications by heavily drugging psychics able to pierce the atmosphere, this is effetive partially when localized and with opponent psychics focusing against.

Any refutes and discussions to/against the (most admitedly viewed as outlandish) above post is welcome.

Nicky was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when she was 29
The condition makes her muscles tighten, leaving her unable to move
Nicky now poses as a frozen Marilyn Monroe for two hours at a time to raise money for charity

A Parkinson’s sufferer whose muscles stiffen as a result of the disease has turned her condition into an art-form – by becoming a human statue.

Mother-of-four Nicky Pywell was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when she was just 29 forcing her to give up her career as a gardener.

The neurological condition means that without medication Nicky’s muscles and joints contract and tighten – and she is unable to move.

Nicky during her Marilyn Monroe performance

Good cause: Nicky decided to harness her muscle rigidity for charity by posing as a living statue for money

Undeterred, courageous Nicky decided not to let the debilitating disease get in her way and used her newly found talent to pose as a living statue.

She now raises money for charity by doing a Marilyn Monroe impersonation in her home town of Coalville, Leicester, for two hours at a time.

The street-artist now makes up to £400-a-time for Parkinson’s UK with her popular performances.

The 35-year-old said: ‘I become a living statue for two-and-a-half hours. I get stiff, all my muscles get rigid and I’m unable to move if I don’t have my medication.

Toddler enjoys first family Christmas at home after having ELEVEN tumours removed from all over her body
One loving family and a lethal divide: Sam, 25, and dying of a brain tumour insists faith healing can cure him. His cancer-consultant father is desperate for him to trust doctors

‘It was the idea of being stiff that led to being a statue. I do take little breaks but every time I am out on the platform I don’t move.

‘I raised about £390 the first time. That was taken from sponsorships beforehand as well as people giving me some on the day.

‘I gave an envelope to everyone I met that week telling them about myself and what I was doing.

‘I love Marilyn Monroe – she was a good actress and beautiful and glamorous. I find it really fun, I enjoy it and people say I look like her.’

Ms Pywell first sought her GP’s advice after she thought she had pulled a muscle while using a hedge trimmer nine years ago.
Nicky used to be a gardener but had to give up her job when she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s

Nicky used to be a gardener but had to give up her job when she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s

As time went on her left arm began to shake and drag but it took another three years and four neurologists to diagnose Nicky because doctors thought she was too young to suffer from Parkinson’s.

She added: ‘I was working as a self taught and self-employed gardener which I loved.

‘This particular day I was using a hedge trimmer and I thought I had just pulled a muscle. My left arm felt stiff.

‘I went to a walk in clinic and they gave me anti-inflammatory medicine, but it didn’t go away.

‘Then my left arm began to shake, and my left leg began to drag so much that it affected my driving.

‘Over the next three years I saw three or four different neurologists. None of them thought it could be Parkinson’s because I was so young.

‘Eventually my new GP sent me to a different neurologist at Leicester General Hospital. They admitted me to the ward, and Parkinson’s was finally diagnosed.

‘The medication they put me on worked very quickly and I was able to walk out of hospital.

‘I felt that things were finally getting under control, with the help of my Parkinson’s nurse.

‘Giving up my gardening career was one of the hardest things for me. Now, I’m taking each day as it comes.

‘People aren’t aware that I’ve got it unless I tell them and you get funny looks from people who make assumptions.

‘It’s much more likely that people think you’re drunk or taking drugs. For me to accept I’ve got Parkinson’s it was easier for me if I told the world rather than tell people one by one. It’s something I’ve learned to live with and not to be ashamed of.’

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Actually the psychic or astral imprinting issue is a viable problem to be considered with people with illnesses displaying themselves as role models. The best would be for warning to accompany with the ‘statue busker’ that has an illness (which spoils the work), or to have people in perfect health AND a family history free of disease that do not need warnings. That way, HEALTHINESS can be psychically imprinted upon the passers by rather than ‘wiping off’ of illness (if even intended or possible being in such a poor state of health) on the casual onlooker. Subconsciously those less wary or unaware may end up psychically ‘imitating’ Parkinsons disease while out of ignorance due to attraction for Marilyn Monroe and hence there must be some forethought and caution on the part of the audience as well even as the worker puts themselves out on a limb as well.

Some of the people who are knowledgeable about this may not practice or are coordinated well in actual practice, conversely those who practice well (a large majority I would say), do not know how to communicate this being unschooled in occult language. Then there are those fractured by the psychiatric establishment for being too strong or too aware, but thats another neurotech tagged article on this blog for those who care to browse . . .

President Barack Obama wipes a tear as he speaks about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, …An emotional President Barack Obama vowed on Friday to “take meaningful action, regardless of the politics,” to prevent future tragedies like the shooting massacre Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

“Our hearts are broken today,” Obama said in a brief statement at the White House briefing room, frequently pausing to wipe tears from his eyes. “The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them: birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.”

Obama expressed sorrow for the victims’ loved ones and sympathy for the parents of the children who survived but who know that “their children’s innocence has been torn away from them too early.”

“As a country we have been through this too many times,” Obama said, listing a series of mass shootings over the past few years in places like Aurora, Colo.

“These neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children. And we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics,” he stressed.

Earlier, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters that “today’s not the day” to talk about possible new gun control steps meant to prevent such tragedies in the future.

Obama ordered flags over government facilities to be flown at half-staff until sunset on Dec. 18. Shortly after he spoke, Connecticut State Police said the death toll included 20 children, six adults and the shooter.

Obama learned of the rampage at 10:30 a.m. from Homeland Security adviser John Brennan. He later discussed it by telephone with FBI Director Robert Mueller and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy.

Obama’s reference to acting “regardless of the politics” seemed likely to be a reference to deep opposition in Congress to new gun control legislation.

“Today’s not … a day to engage in the usual Washington policy debates,” Carney told reporters. “That day will come, but today’s not that day.” Carney said renewing a federal assault weapons ban “does remain a commitment” of the president. The ban expired in 2004, and Obama has taken no serious steps to renew it on Capitol Hill.

Carney declined to answer repeated questions on when would be an appropriate time for lawmakers in Washington to discuss possible actions to prevent future tragedies. “Our minds and our focus need to be on what’s happening there and providing assistance where we can to those who need it,” he said, urging “enormous sympathy for the families that are affected.”

One reporter pointed to Obama’s remarks in July just days after a shooting spree that left 12 dead and about 60 injured at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.

“I hope that over the next several days, next several weeks and next several months, we all reflect on how we can do something about some of the senseless violence that ends up marring this country,” Obama said at the time.

Obama has made similar comments before, including at a January 2011 memorial for the victims of a mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., in which then-Rep. Gabby Giffords was grievously wounded.

“We have to examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of such violence in the future,” Obama said. “But what we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other. That we cannot do.”

Republican House Speaker John Boehner likewise ordered the Stars and Stripes lowered over the Capitol.

“The horror of this day seems so unbearable, but we will lock arms and unite as citizens, for that is how Americans rise above unspeakable evil,” Boehner said in a written statement. “Let us all come together in God’s grace to pray for the families of the victims, that they may find some comfort and peace amid such suffering.

“Let us give thanks for all those who helped get people to safety, and take heart from their example. The House of Representatives—like every American—stands ready to assist the people of Newtown, Connecticut,” Boehner said.

A country where every geezer or child is armed to the teeth is impossible to invade. Think Afghanistan where the kids casually carry around missile launchers or where an assault rifle is giiven as a coming of manhood gift. The above pic is of Russian origin. Does USA understand that people kill people and not guns kill people? Screening for psychos (psychiatrists kill with medications ALL THE TIME, so ban psychiatric meds . . . ) is the main issue.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Absolute power absolutely corrupts.

Suggest that ALL owners of PRIVATE temples and churches be implanted with neurotech. Also all neurosurgeons who are able to implant neurotech and sellers of neurotech be implanted with neurotech as well. ALL private hospital committee chairs (or anyone with the authority to authorize bonuses), and ALL public listed company chairs serving more than 2 terms also required to be implanted with neurotech. ALL psychiatrists with the authority to implant neurotech be implanted with neurotech so that audits of all individuals possibly overseen by WHO can be done to see that abuse of political opponents and activists be prevented. Coroners who might have access to the dead and ‘used’ neurotech should also be implanted as well. The security people working at cushy jobs in nuke or dangerous weapon stockpiles also should be considered, to prevent bribery by unfriendly forces.

ALL neurotech implants should be registered with WHO and INTERPOL and deactivatable from WHO and INTERPOL to prevent abuse. ALL cabinet ministers related to security or neurotech based surveillance should be implanted with neurotech as well. ALL top police persons with access to neurotech devices be implanted with neurotech so that the NEUTRAL MEMBERS of public (i.e. no relatives, no neighbours, no people from the same establishment or work place) can do audits.

All neurotech implants NOT registered will be considered illegal. This way even banks and major companies leaking secrets and funds to unfriendly (not necessarily Muslet companies, but given the ‘War on terror’ the most infiltrations should likely be Muslet friendly ‘Whites’ of multifaith households or multifaith ‘toting’, yet Islamist leaning countries like Malaysia or some parts of Europe).

ARTICLE 5

New Russian motto: Legalize prostitution – collect taxes – 07.12.2012

The situation on the Russian market of sex services may soon dramatically change. Prostitutes will not be cheaper, and the moral climate in the society will not get better. Instead of vulnerability before the officials and clients, prostitutes would have “safety certificates” and those enjoying their bodies would have confidence that they are not dealing with a hotbed of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV. A conference to discuss the initiative on the development of a law on legalization of prostitution was held in Moscow under the motto “legalize prostitution – collect taxes”. The idea was supported by a State Duma deputy from the party “United Russia” Joseph Kobzon.

The initiative on legalization of prostitution and the conference was originated by the fund “Morality Police.” The document of the organization, called a draft federal law “On state regulation and control of sexual services” suggested calling prostitutes “individual entrepreneurs engaged in providing sexual services,” and their clients – “consumers of sexual services.” The authors of the bill proposed to consider underground prostitution only sexual activities meant to obtain “income in the form of money or other material benefits.” The bill addresses the relationship between “entrepreneurs” and “consumers” as well as tax and other government agencies.

Duma deputy Joseph Kobzon supported the idea of ??the bill with reservations. He noted that the bill was just an excuse to start a great debate, perhaps even a referendum. “As soon as the State Duma starts drafting a law on prostitution, it will immediately raise the question of the need of its approval in the second reading by the government and presidential administration. Once the government feels that this law has a financial component, […] that there will be a need to allocate money from the budget to combat prostitution, it will be voted down,” said Kobzon. According to him, the money will be needed first of all for the maintenance of the new police unit – morality police.

Speaking after Kobzon, spokeswoman of the informal union of sex workers “Silver Rose” Oksana Yartseva noted that taxes that are rampant in prostitution “settle in the pockets of corruption.”

De facto prostitution flourishes in Russia, and the existing laws are obsolete. In the current Russian legislation Article 6.11 in the Code of Administrative Offences provides for a fine for prostitution between 1,500 and 2,000 rubles. There are two articles of the Criminal Code against pimps and keepers of brothels. They are “Involvement in prostitution” (up to a maximum of eight years in prison) and “Organization of prostitution” (ten years).

The conference overlooked the fact that talking about prostitutes we normally think of women, and thinking of customers we think of men only, which is not quite true. Everyone knows about the existence of male prostitution – and not just for the gay.

Sociologist Olga Kryshtanovskaya was among the most prominent opponents of legalization of prostitution at the conference. She did not like the fact that “it can be done by any girl who graduated from high school.” The opponents of this bill have two main arguments. The law on the legalization of prostitution is contrary to the traditional moral values ??and would lead to a greater spread of this vicious phenomenon. Ms. Kryshtanovskaya who specializes in the study of elites also mentioned sex tourism: “Would we face a huge influx of migrant sex tourists who will be coming along with their male migrant workers? How will it impact our demographic situation?”

In contrast to the arguments of morality and increasing number of prostitutes, the rhetorical question of Olga Kryshtanovskaya is very pertinent. The first oldest profession safely existed from time immemorial and, apparently, in one form or another will exist as long as the human race exists. As for Christianity, according to Jesus, individual prostitutes have a chance to enter the kingdom of heaven before priests and the elders. The spread of prostitution, as noted by Joseph Kobzon, is affected by social problems.

As long as Russia stays a poor country, the officials should think hard before legalizing prostitution. Otherwise, Russia can turn into semblance of Thailand that has become the center of world sex tourism. Russia should also look at the experience of Germany. Prostitution in Germany is legal in Protestant lands and prohibited in Catholic Bavaria. However, the ban does not lead to the destruction of brothels but, rather, drives them underground.

Igor Bukker

Pravda.Ru

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Igor? We all know that the regime establishment, chauvinists and militant feminists thrive off the sexual frustration of either gender. Prostitution if legalized will remove this element of psychic abuse from society and even prevent abuse especially FROM the hetero religious establishment fundos. The officials have been thinking ‘hard’, but Igor has been thinking ‘soft’. If Russia turns into the semblance of Thailand, one can only see the downfall of Capitalism as Socialism takes control when business goes to Russia. The economic vibrancy (we all know that places where the most entertainment occur is also where the biggest deals get done) of a Thailand-like Russia would dominate the world. Why would Igor not want that? Fifth columnist fronting for Capitalism? Igor is an ‘Igor’ for the Frankenstein of USA’s extreme-Capitalists (much like Islamists) . . .

European kindergartens and schools may ban children’s books and fairy tales that depict the traditional family. This is a request of the European Parliament Committee on Women’s Rights. According to the committee, fairy tales should talk about sexual diversity. Norwegian experts believe that children benefit from watching porn.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality prepared a report that calls for a ban of all books that show the traditional family where the father is the breadwinner and the mother takes care of the children in schools and day care centers of Europe. According to the authors, these books are bad for the future life of children, especially girls, and promote wrong behavioral patterns. In the future, it may prevent them from building a career.

Feminists are concerned that children from an early age are constantly faced with “negative gender stereotypes” in television shows and commercials. The word “negative” in the report is synonymous with the word “traditional”. Over time, the ban would be extended to television and advertising. So far it was decided to start with books.

The authors of the report strongly recommend urgent legislative measures in the field of children’s literature. In particular, they suggest introducing a policy of “equality of all social sectors.” An example of alternative children’s literature is a book “King and King” with kissing men on the cover. According to the report, this would help children to learn about the “true sexual diversity of society.”

In fact, such measures have already been taken in some countries, particularly in Scandinavian ones that consider themselves the vanguard of Western democracy. “Pravda.Ru” once reported about a Swedish toy manufacturer that issued a catalog before Christmas where girls were pictured shooting imaginary enemies with laser guns, and boys were depicted playing with dolls.

This was a requirement of the Swedish advertising regulator who accused the toy manufacturer of sexism and imposition of negative gender stereotypes. Norwegian kindergartens in 2010 introduced a program of compulsory sex education focusing on sexual minorities.

The report of the European Parliament also insisted that “homosexuality should be taught in kindergarten as a form of experience and knowledge.” According to them, this will expand the concept of “gender identity” for children. “Sexual diversity should be obvious to children. Children need to know that this is normal when your parents are gay or lesbian.”

For some reason, not all parents are willing to believe that this is “normal.” In Norway Muslim community strongly opposed such education in kindergartens. They threatened to withdraw their children from such institutions or create an alternative.

For the “dark” parents who are not aware of the latest trends in sex education in modern society, Norway’s largest newspaper VG Nett recently published an opinion of psychologists and sex therapists who said that it was beneficial for children to watch porn on the internet.

“Parents should not be afraid of their children’s sexuality. Conversely, from a health perspective it is beneficial to watch porn at a time when parents and children talk openly about these issues,” said psychologist and sex researcher Andres Lindskog.

He was commenting on a statement recently issued by an expert from the organization Save the Children, who expressed concern about the fact that increasingly more children and teenagers were addicted to watching pornographic sites on the Internet.

Anders Lindskog is convinced that there is no addiction or harm from this. “It’s important for parents to understand that children are born with sexuality and follow their biology. Children have the same feelings as adults,” said the expert.

After that, should we be surprised that the number of cases of pedophilia is growing in Norway? They mostly occur within the family. A few days ago, newspapers wrote about another such case. A couple, a husband and wife, subjected their three children under 10 years of age to violence and sexual perversions for years.

The children confirmed the violence to the police. But that does not mean that the punishment will be sufficiently severe. In Norway, pedophilia is considered a disease and is listed in the Medical Register. For this reason, pedophiles are given short sentences – from several months to several years. In some cases punishment could be limited to penalty only. In the end, parents can always say that they practiced “diversity of sexual relations.”

Svetlana Smetanina

Pravda.Ru

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Since brain scanning neurotech use is rampant, the issue of abuse and consent as well as TRUE (non-contrived) experimentation among children and conscientious NON-ABUSIVE AND NON-PREDATORY AND NON-EXPLOITATIVE adults that are not a form of uncontrolled incest, should be considered as part of the law making process. There should be no ‘top-secret’ preventions in the expositions of technology and application to the populace any more to prevent abuse and Orwellian dictatorships, hidden or not.

As for feminists or chauvinists, these groups should be allowed to exist as well and educate in the form they would prefer (i.e. disallowing fairytales) BUT may only ‘recruit or induct’ from children who have been determined to have NATURAL PROPENSITY OR GRAVITATION BY A NEUTRAL PANEL and consensually chose the subculture . . . *NOT* even children of arbitrarily feminists or chauvinists by nature should be forced into this sub-culture.

That would mean that Feminists and Chauvinists would continue to exist as a social group, but only be based around affirmation of the type of person, which a child MUST independently decide, and choose from A LIST OF ALL VARIANTS OF SUBCULTURES which must be part of early education. Meanwhile parents back home must be taught to not *forcibly inculpate* ANY values so that the child may grow up independently to decide what they want, NOT what the parents want. Invariably, the traditional family would doubtless survive as well – PROVIDED the issue of land and wealth distribution is resolved and do not from lack of distribution cause poverty to influence the child’s decision and choice as well.

Warren Buffett, the investor famous for betting on aging industries like railroads and insurance, is now trying to pull off something other billionaires have tried and failed to do: save the newspaper business.

His company, Berkshire Hathaway, has spent more than $342 million on 80 newspapers — including its hometown paper, the Omaha World-Herald — and used them to build a new business unit. And Buffett isn’t done. Though the division announced plans to close an underperforming newspaper in Virginia last month, he’s said that more acquisitions may be in store.

Terry Kroeger, the newly installed chief of Buffett’s newspaper empire, runs the operation from a 15th-floor office overlooking the expanse of wide streets that make up Omaha, Neb. The goal, Kroeger says, is to reintroduce newspapers to what they do best: delivering urgent, local information that readers can’t get elsewhere — and coaxing people into paying for it. He’s also creating offshoot websites with corporate sponsors and branching out into Internet video.

“We’ve got to evolve with what people are looking for, and I think our industry has done kind of a crappy job with that,” Kroeger, 50, said in an interview.

Kroeger, who started working at the World-Herald 27 years ago, once kept a pair of sneakers under his desk to mow the lawn whenever the grass around the office building got unsightly. Just like in those early days, it’s essential to charge readers for the reporting that journalists provide, he said. The World- Herald erected a so-called pay wall last year, and Kroeger aims to roll out the same approach across his other newspapers.

“You can’t spend millions of dollars assembling something and then give it away,” he said, endorsing a strategy adopted by the New York Times, News Corp.’s Wall Street Journal and most of Gannett Co.’s papers.

The World-Herald, Buffett’s flagship paper, will see its revenue decline this year as circulation shrinks, Kroeger said. It generates about $100 million annually and remains profitable, said Kroeger, who declined to elaborate on its finances.

Buffett’s acquisition of 63 newspapers from Media General earlier this year accounts for most of the newspaper unit. Based on Media General statements, those newspapers generated $299.6 million last year, a 50 percent decline from 2006.

Kroeger said that Buffett’s total newspaper division is in the black and should remain so, despite the shrinking revenue.

“We’re profitable this year,” he said. “I have a high degree of confidence we will remain profitable next year as well. We’re very high on the industry.”

The paywall has helped support revenue, though the program is still in the early stages, he said. The World-Herald’s circulation, meanwhile, has continued to shrink. It fell 3.2 percent in weekday readership to 130,932 from a year earlier, according to the most recent data from the Alliance for Audited Media. The Sunday edition dropped 2.9 percent to 165,397.

Even if the paywall draws help boost subscriptions, the move is more of a palliative than a cure, Kroeger said.

“We have to get into new businesses,” he said.

One such venture, already under way, aggregates health-care articles from the World-Herald and other Berkshire-owned Nebraska newspapers into a website sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska. The site, which is freely available to readers, has advertising in addition to the sponsorship.

The risk is that sponsorships jeopardize a newspaper’s objectivity, especially when it comes to medical information, said Todd Gitlin, a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Kroeger said the arrangement with Blue Cross doesn’t affect the content.

The broader question is whether newspapers can evolve quickly enough to revive a decaying business. They’re confronting shrinking demand for print advertising, declining circulation, and encroachment from Internet companies such as Google and Facebook. The industry’s ad dollars dropped 6.6 percent in the first six months of 2012 from a year earlier, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

While community papers have an edge over publications in crowded media markets, no one has found a way out of the slump, said Ken Doctor, a media analyst with Outsell in Burlingame, Calif.

“There’s no silver bullet,” he said. Newspapers in many places had enjoyed a near-monopoly pricing on print advertising, Doctor said. “That’s not coming back — for anybody.”

Kroeger said last month the company will shutter the Virginia-based Manassas News & Messenger, one of Buffett’s most recent acquisitions, and cut 105 jobs in the process. The newspaper faced too much direct competition from other papers in the area, which includes Washington, and was continuing to lose money, Kroeger said in the World-Herald.

“We didn’t see any way to really turn it back into a profitable enterprise, reliably, so what made the most sense was to just cease publication,” he said.

Other billionaires have tried and failed to turn around the newspaper business. Tribune Co., the owner of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, filed for bankruptcy in 2008, one year after a buyout led by real-estate magnate Sam Zell.

Buffett’s gamble is less ambitious. His recent spending spree on newspapers amounted to less than two-tenths of 1 percent of Berkshire’s total market value.

He also may have more success than others, said Don Graham, chairman and chief executive officer of The Washington Post Co. Part of Berkshire’s strategy is focusing on smaller market papers that don’t have to compete with other media, Graham said.

“When you get larger, you get challenged by more forms of media competition for advertising delivery,” he said last week at an investor conference. “Anybody who really focuses on the newspaper business should be studying one company this year: Berkshire Hathaway.”

At Buffett’s Omaha paper, Kroeger is investing in high- definition video equipment, with an eye toward doing an online sports show featuring its reporters. That’s something major market newspapers such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have tried. Unlike those national publications, though, Buffett’s newspapers embrace a simple tenet: All news is local.

“The community aspect of what we do is so important,” Kroeger said. “Obituaries, for example, are huge. You want to find out how big a deal that is? Misspell somebody’s name in an obituary — once. You’ll never do it again. These things matter to people.”

Kroeger’s first job at the paper was as an assistant purchasing agent. He negotiated for newsprint costs from vendors and made sure the company’s trucks had enough gas to make their deliveries every day.

“I was pretty low on the food chain,” he said. “It’s where I learned about the nuts and bolts of the business.”

Buffett is a longtime investor in newspapers, though never at this scale in the past. Buffett’s interest in the industry had been mostly limited to a stake in the Washington Post and the 1977 purchase of the Buffalo News, which is run separately from Kroeger’s operations. Its publisher, Stan Lipsey, reports directly to Buffett. Berkshire also owns a stake in Gannett, the publisher of USA Today.

Buffett is the second-richest American, after Microsoft’s Bill Gates, with an estimated worth of $46.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That’s made him one of the highest-profile backers of print journalism.

“I’ve loved newspapers all my life — and always will,” Buffett wrote in a letter to employees of his newspapers earlier this year, before going on to say that he will probably buy more papers over the next few years. Buffett’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Kroeger declined to discuss the company’s future takeover targets. Other newspaper businesses focused on smaller markets include McClatchy Co., a publisher of 30 daily newspapers such as the Sacramento Bee, and E.W. Scripps Co., which operates 15 newspapers from Cincinnati. Tribune Co.’s newspapers also will be put up for sale as the company emerges from bankruptcy later this month, people familiar with the matter said this week.

Buffett, born in Omaha, has been a loyal subscriber to the World-Herald for most of his adult life and understands the challenges the paper faces, Kroeger said.

“He knows it’s not going to be easy turning things around,” Kroeger said. “He gets what we do here and he’s been incredibly helpful, generous with his time, offering advice when he can.”

Still, Buffett doesn’t influence news coverage, said Mike Reilly, the World-Herald’s executive editor. And there’s been no shift in how the paper covers him, he said. For years, the paper has run a weekly column on the billionaire called “Warren Watch,” something that continues under Buffett’s ownership.

“There hasn’t been any change in how I run the newsroom,” Reilly said. “We used to cover the heck out of him and we still cover the heck out of him.”

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Starting from articles on the net, the number of hits should decide WHICH articles get published on solid paper. The hits online determine how much a person gets paid for an article (this should be capped at a limit of minimum wage per SERIOUS article or if the – we can’t have people getting millions at the company’s expense for A SINGLE ARTICLE), THEN the article gets published BECAUSE of many hits. This way articles that people do not read are left out, and the 99% decide what gets published instead of the editors who are doubtless controlled by the political regime of the day. For non-serious articles or trivia like music launches, celebs or fashion the rate should be at 5% of minimum wage per article, as we do know that a single journalist can churn out dozens a week and these automatically get ‘hits’ because of the shallow masses or tired minds looking for something simple. Various articles of similar types could appear all at once, so the top 20 top hits of the same article perhaps could be edited AND the ‘minimum wage purse’ be shared among journalists who independently found the article on their own (reposters not counted). As for comments, the ‘average annual wage’ purse could be shared for the top 10% of comments so that feedback is also included. Newspapers should not pontificate but also include comments as well.

ARTICLE 8

Susan Rice withdraws from running for secretary of state – live coverage – guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 December 2012 23.11 GMT

Susan Rice

UN ambassador tells Obama ‘I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly’

As news of Rice’s withdrawal broke, the president entered a meeting with House Speaker John Boehner on how the two sides might come to a fiscal cliff compromise.

If the president caved on Rice, does that mean he’s in a cave-y mood generally?

The deputy chief of staff for the speaker’s office, David Schnittger, says the meeting has concluded, but he isn’t saying what happened.

The @whitehouse #fiscalcliff meeting between @speakerboehner and President Obama has concluded.
— David Schnittger (@OhSchnitt) December 13, 2012

11.11pm GMT

Slate’s Dave Weigel calls it. That guy’s good.

I just hope McCain makes a rare Sunday show appearance to discuss this news.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) December 13, 2012

Potential defense secretary Chuck Hagel, a former colleague of John Kerry’s on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and like Kerry a Vietnam vet, is not regarded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to be an especially faithful friend to Israel, Eli Lake reports in the Daily Beast (Aipac never takes formal positions on nominees):

A senior pro-Israel advocate in Washington told The Daily Beast on Thursday, “The pro-Israel community will view the nomination of Senator Chuck Hagel in an extremely negative light. His record is unique in its animus towards Israel.”

Josh Block, a former spokesman for AIPAC and the CEO and president of the Israel Project, told The Daily Beast, “While in the Senate, Hagel voted against designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, refused to call on the E.U. to designate Hezbollah a terrorist group, and consistently voted against sanctions on Iran for their illicit pursuit of nuclear weapons capability. It is a matter of fact that his record on these issues puts him well outside the mainstream Democratic and Republican consensus.”

11.02pm GMT
Kerry: ‘we should all be grateful’ for Rice’s service

Ewen MacAskill sends John Kerry’s statement on the withdrawal of Susan Rice:

I’ve known and worked closely with Susan Rice not just at the UN, but in my own campaign for President. I’ve defended her publicly and wouldn’t hesitate to do so again because I know her character and I know her commitment. She’s an extraordinarily capable and dedicated public servant. Today’s announcement doesn’t change any of that. We should all be grateful that she will continue to serve and contribute at the highest level. As someone who has weathered my share of political attacks and understands on a personal level just how difficult politics can be, I’ve felt for her throughout these last difficult weeks, but I also know that she will continue to serve with great passion and distinction.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., listens during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 3, 2012 to discuss a disabilities treaty. Kerry did not want to respond to questions from reporters about recent talk that Kerry is a top candidate to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., listens during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 3, 2012 to discuss a disabilities treaty.
10.57pm GMT

Let’s hope Kerry recovers from his conflicted feelings about Rice’s political troubles in time to put a cheerful face on it should he be nominated to take the job that was supposed to be hers.

“I’ve felt for her throughout these last difficult weeks.” — John Kerry on Susan Rice. — The Fix (@TheFix) December 13, 2012

Heh.

If Kerry as Sec’y of State is half as effective against Iran’s mullahs as he was against Susan Rice, I’m for him — Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) December 13, 2012 10.43pm GMT

Updated at 10.47pm GMT

Who, apart from Sen. John McCain, is most pleased by today’s news? There’s reason to speculate that outgoing Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown might not be taking it so badly.

Brown is expected to be a front-runner to fill Kerry’s senate seat if Kerry gets the state nod. Here’s ABC’s Elizabeth Hartfield:

…with Rice out of the running, Kerry is “all but certain” to get the nomination, according to ABC’s Jake Tapper. That means a vacant seat and a special election, which could benefit out-going Sen. Scott Brown, who lost his bid for reelection to Elizabeth Warren in November. […] Brown’s victory in a special election would not be a sure thing. Although he leaves office with high approval ratings- exit polls from the 2012 election showed him with a favor-ability rating of 60 percent- but Massachusetts is a solidly Democratic state, and there are many Democrats in elected office in the state who could challenge Brown. 10.37pm GMT

The uproar over Rice’s statements on Benghazi was fueled by a desperate attempt to score points during the presidential campaign, as Tom Ricks so bluntly explained on Fox News. Then Obama was reelected and the continued campaign against Rice began to look especially unhinged.

Consider Iowa Rep. Steve King, who today said the Benghazi scandal is 10 times bigger than the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals combined, the Washington Times reported (h/t: @batterdippin):

“(Watergate) was a break-in that Nixon had no knowledge of at the time. It became about the cover-up,” King said. “Iran-Contra, again, as far as the real depths of what went wrong and who violated what laws, we didn’t really get that identified in there. … This is a case where we had an ambassador who was assassinated. He and the others were victims of a plot and a plan. We were willfully and intentionally misinformed by the White House. You know, if Richard Nixon tried to cover up Watergate, that’s an easy case to make that the Obama administration didn’t want us to know what has gone on. We still don’t know.”

This kind of circus wackiness, among other factors, made the case against Rice look weak. It looked like something a newly empowered president could bulldoze through. In late November, John Heilemann in New York Magazine went so far as to list five reasons why a Rice confirmation was a done deal:

As a rule, your columnist avoids predictions, but in the spirit of holiday indulgence, I will make an exception here: Not only will Obama appoint Rice to succeed Clinton but she will be confirmed.

Here’s Heilemann’s fourth reason:

4. Because McCain is being a jackass—and Obama is sick of it. Arguably more than any other national figure, the senior senator from Arizona is driven in every aspect of his public behavior by personal pique. In the wake of the 2000 Republican nomination fight, when he believed Bush and his campaign had defeated him by nefarious means, McCain lunged to the center and became one of the sharpest thorns in the side of the new president from his own party. In the wake of the 2008 election, when he was soundly thumped by a Democratic challenger whom he regarded as a neophyte and a pretender whose experience and valor were no match for his own, McCain immediately shed all traces of mavericky independence and became one of Obama’s fiercest critics from the right. […]

Apparently Obama wasn’t so sick of it. 10.27pm GMT

Updated at 10.30pm GMT

FILE – DECEMBER 13: Susan Rice has withdrawn her name from the running for Secretary of State. NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 30: Susan E. Rice, ambassador and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), attends a UN Security Council meeting regarding the on-going situation in Syria on August 30, 2012 in New York City. UN Security Council negotiations regarding the situation in Syria collapsed last month. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images) Continuity Horizontal Syria USA New York City Meeting Politics Ambassador UN Security Council United Nations Blocked Terms Diplomacy Attending Permanent Representative Susan Rice Situation Susan E. Rice, ambassador and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), attends a UN Security Council meeting regarding the on-going situation in Syria on August 30, 2012 in New York City.
10.13pm GMT

TPM’s Igor Bobic has a longer excerpt from Rice’s interview with Brian Williams to air tonight. Rice says that she didn’t want to see a disruptive confirmation process:

Today I made the decision that it was the best thing for our country, for the American people that I not continue to be considered by the president for secretary of state because I didn’t want to see a confirmation process that was very prolonged, very politicized, very distracting, and very disruptive because there are so many things we need to get done as a country, and the first several months of a second-term president’s agenda is really the opportunity to get the crucial things done. We’re talking about comprehensive immigration reform, balanced deficit reduction, job creation, that’s what matters, and to the extent that my nomination could have delayed or distracted or deflected or maybe even some of these priorities impossible to achieve, I didn’t want that and I’d much prefer to continue doing what I’m doing, which is a job I love at the United Nations. 10.11pm GMT

The GOP, Michelle Obama and favors to repay

Guardian Washington bureau chief Ewen MacAskill observes that the president was in a tight spot over the secretary of state nomination – but now he is not:

The Republicans might have done Obama a favour. The president was under pressure from two of the women in his life, wife Michelle and adviser Valerie Jarrett, to give the job to their friend Rice rather than to Kerry. Obama owes Kerry, having used him repeatedly as an envoy to help with sensitive issues such as relations with the Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai. Kerry was also the Mitt Romney stand-in during presidential debate practice. Rice had the necessary diplomatic credentials. She has been right about more issues than she has been wrong, being an early champion of the West taking a tougher line on the Darfur issue. But when she has failed, she has failed badly. She was responsible for African affairs in the Clinton administration, and critics – fairly or unfairly – blame her for doing little to prevent the rapid disintegration of the Congo, a conflict that is estimated to have cost at least two million lives.

On a small scale, she was humiliated a fortnight ago when the UN general assembly voted in favour of a step towards Palestinian statehood. Showing none of the humility such a defeat deserved, she put her head down in the assembly to read out a defiant statement that would have pleased few outside of Israel. Kerry, chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee, has much wider experience in the diplomatic world, and knows already many of the world leaders. Rice’s departure from the field will be greeted with relief in foreign ministries round the world who have been on the receiving end of her rough tongue: that is, most of them. For the same reason, her continuation as UN ambassador will be greeted with groans at other UN missions. 10.06pm GMT

How spontaneous is the Rice news? She’s already taped an entire interview with NBC News’ Brian Williams, a snippet of which just aired.

Rice said that the president’s second term would see “an attempt to get the crucial things done… [and] to the extent that my nomination could have delayed or distracted [from these priorities]… I didn’t want that.”

She told Williams she’ll stay on as UN ambassador.

It’s gracious boilerplate for withdrawing nominees.

was #Susan Rice pushed or did she jump? — Barbara Slavin (@barbaraslavin1) December 13, 2012

9.59pm GMT
The rise and fall of the next secretary of state

At what point did the president decide the fight over Rice wasn’t worth it?

Obama was still fully behind his potential nominee when she made her trip to the Capitol Hill woodshed at the end of November, meeting with Sens. McCain, Lindsey Graham, (R-SC), Kelly Ayotte, (R-NH) and others.

“The concerns I have are greater today than they were before, we’re not even close to having the answers,” said Graham at a joint press conference following the meeting. “The American people got bad information on Sept. 16, bad information from the president after that, and the question is, should they have been given any information at all?”

Republicans accused Rice of misleading Congress and the public about what happened in Benghazi in the Sept. 11 attack that killed Amb. J. Christopher Stevens, a computer technician and two security contractors employed by the CIA.

The Obama administration, led publicly by Rice, initially made the attack on a US mission out to be part of a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islam video that had provoked such a protest that day in Cairo and elsewhere.

Later it emerged that there was no protest, that the attack was planned and that the mission was attached to a covert CIA post.

Five days after the attack, Rice made this misleading statement on NBC’s Meet the Press:

What happened in Benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, which were prompted, of course, by the video. Opportunistic extremist elements came to the consulate as this was unfolding. They came with heavy weapons, which unfortunately are readily available in post-revolutionary Libya, and it escalated into a much more violent episode. In the face of GOP criticism, the president said Rice was simply passing on the best information the intelligence community had at the time.

“If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me,” Obama said. “And I’m happy to have that discussion with them. But for them to go after the U.N. ambassador, who had nothing to do with Benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous.”

Instead Republicans decided to continue to go after Rice, a lead adviser on the president’s first campaign.

Rice was not just another adviser; aides of both have told me Obama considered her someone he had a strong kinship with. — Perry Bacon Jr. (@perrybaconjr) December 13, 2012

She was one of first national security wonks to join his camp in 2007 and played a big role suggesting Obama was experienced enough. — Perry Bacon Jr. (@perrybaconjr) December 13, 2012 9.55pm GMT

The Guardian’s Chris McGreal notes that criticism of Rice went beyond her performance after the Benghazi attack:

Although Republican ire focused on Rice’s role in the aftermath of the Benghazi attack that killed the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, she faced strong criticism from other quarters over her backing of African despots and her unflinching support of Israel. Hours before Rice withdrew from the race, Robert Wexler, a six-term former congressman who now heads a pro-Israel think tank in Washington, said of her that “Israel has no greater champion in the current administration than Susan Rice”. That’s a view shared by some of her critics who say she has gone beyond the call of duty in projecting US policy on Israel to became a passionate defender of the Jewish state despite Binyamin Netanyahu’s policies, calling criticism at the UN “anti-Israel crap”. Rice went to lengths to woo the biggest of the pro-Israel lobby groups, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Rice has also come under strong criticism over her positions on Africa, most recently for trying to suppress a UN report strongly critical of the Rwandan government’s arming and other support for rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rice was a national security official in Bill Clinton’s White House who played a part in the US’s failure to act against the 1994 genocide of Rwanda’s Tutsis. Since then she has been an unswerving supporter of the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, who as a Tutsi rebel leader put a stop to the genocide even in the face of a growing body of evidence his forces are bound up with years of war crimes in Congo. Rice has also come under criticism for supporting other authoritarian leaders in Africa. In September she delivered a eulogy for the late prime minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, calling him “brilliant” and a “a true friend to me”. Meles had a long track record of bloody suppression of democracy. 9.39pm GMT

“I will do everything in my power to block [Rice] from being the United States secretary of state. She has proven that she either doesn’t understand or she is not willing to accept evidence on its face. There is no doubt five days later what this attack was and for” – Sen. John McCain on Fox News, Nov. 14, 2012

US Senator John McCain, speaks during the 8th Manama Dialogue security conference in Manama, Bahrain, 08 December 2012. The 8th Manama Dialogue organized by the London based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) which will run until 9 December 2012 will focus predominantly on Syria and broad regional security issues. EPA/MAZEN MAHDI US Senator John McCain, speaks during the 8th Manama Dialogue security conference in Manama, Bahrain, 08 December 2012.

McCain reaches for the brandy and mutters to himself, “It’s a great day for America.” Fade out. — David Corn (@DavidCornDC) December 13, 2012 9.35pm GMT

To many seasoned observers it looks like the president has just lost a high-profile fight with Republicans over a potential nominee he has very publicly defended, indeed is personally linked to.

BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith is reminded of the bloody Cabinet fights of Obama’s first term, when he had to nominate three commerce secretaries, including Bill Richardson, before he got one through, and when former Sen. Tom Daschle failed as a health secretary nominee. A bit of a repeat of very early term 1, esp on national security: Obama, bloodied up a little by the Hill, shows weakness. — Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) December 13, 2012 9.29pm GMT

Hagel thought to be front-runner for defense slot

Rice’s withdrawal isn’t the only action in cabinet shuffling this afternoon. Earlier today Bloomberg News reported that former Sen. Chuck Hagel had the completed the vetting process to be the secretary of defense nominee. The report describes Hagel as “the leading candidate to become Obama’s next Secretary of Defense.”

Another senator, John Kerry, also had been mentioned as a potential defense pick, perhaps as a consolation prize were he to be denied the job he really wants, secretary of state, which was thought to be occupied by Susan Rice.

Now Rice is out at state. And Hagel may be in at defense. Which for John Kerry could mean victory.

Here’s the Bloomberg report:

Hagel, who served as an enlisted Army infantryman in Vietnam, has passed the vetting process at the White House Counsel’s office, said one of the people. The former Nebraska senator has told associates that he is awaiting final word from the president, said the other person. Both requested anonymity to discuss personnel matters. Other contenders are Michele Flournoy, former defense undersecretary for policy, and Ashton Carter, deputy defense secretary, administration officials have said. Obama invited Hagel to the White House on Dec. 4 to discuss the position with him, according to an administration official. The president hasn’t made a final decision, said another official. Both asked for anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney today declined to comment on whether Obama is considering Hagel, saying only that the two-term former lawmaker was widely respected. – 9.22pm GMT

Rice’s letter withdrawing her name

Here’s Rice’s letter to the president withdrawing from consideration as US secretary of state. “The position of secretary of state should never be politicized,” she says. Ambassador Susan Rice’s letter to President Obama (h/t: @thematthewkeys and @katierogers) 9.16pm GMT

The Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill sends President Obama’s full response on the Rice announcement. The president said he spoke with Rice today:

Today, I spoke to Ambassador Susan Rice, and accepted her decision to remove her name from consideration for Secretary of State. For two decades, Susan has proven to be an extraordinarily capable, patriotic, and passionate public servant. As my Ambassador to the United Nations, she plays an indispensable role in advancing America’s interests. Already, she has secured international support for sanctions against Iran and North Korea, worked to protect the people of Libya, helped achieve an independent South Sudan, stood up for Israel’s security and legitimacy, and served as an advocate for UN reform and the human rights of all people. I am grateful that Susan will continue to serve as our Ambassador at the United Nations and a key member of my cabinet and national security team, carrying her work forward on all of these and other issues. I have every confidence that Susan has limitless capability to serve our country now and in the years to come, and know that I will continue to rely on her as an advisor and friend. While I deeply regret the unfair and misleading attacks on Susan Rice in recent weeks, her decision demonstrates the strength of her character, and an admirable commitment to rise above the politics of the moment to put our national interests first. The American people can be proud to have a public servant of her caliber and character representing our country. 9.13pm GMT

Obama ‘deeply regrets the unfair and misleading attack’ on Rice CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller gets the response from President Obama, who says he “deeply regrets the unfair and misleading attack” on Rice, but her decision “demonstrates the strength of her character & an admirable commitment to rise above politics.” In written statement, Pres Obama says he “deeply regrets the unfair and misleading attack” on Susan Rice, — Mark Knoller (@markknoller) December 13, 2012

In his first press conference after his reelection, the president struck a note of unusual perturbance in responding to Republican attacks on Rice.

“[Rice] has done exemplary work,” he said. “She has represented the United States… with skill and professionalism and toughness and grace. … and if Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me.” 9.11pm GMT

Rice out of the running for secretary of state

UN ambassador Susan Rice has withdrawn her name from consideration for secretary of state, NBC News has reported. A potential nomination for Rice, who for months was perceived to be the president’s top pick, has been the object of fierce opposition from Republicans, who accuse her of misconduct following the September attack on Benghazi.

“If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly – to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities,” Rice wrote in a letter to President Obama obtained by NBC. “That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country … Therefore, I respectfully request that you no longer consider my candidacy at this time.”

We’ll be live-blogging developments. 9.04pm GMT

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Good honourable and ethical move by Rice. Rice has decided to ditch crony politics by sacrificing an opportunity that destroys democracy. Frankly ‘friends’ or seat holders in other places should not be ‘re-given’ posts. This should be something a panel should vote on and willing volunteers from a talent pool should sign on for for their 15 minutes of fame.

More than any other politician in America, her candidacy would change the contours of the next election.

Every Democrat with ambitions to succeed President Obama wants to know the answer to one question: Is Hillary Clinton going to run? If so, many will decide against doing so themselves. Who wants to square off against an opponent who’ll have a better fundraising operation, a better resume, and a spouse who happens to be America’s best surrogate? At the moment when the first black president is preparing to leave the White House, who will want to run against someone with a more than viable chance of becoming the first woman president?

“She seems like Democrats’ best bet, perhaps by some margin, to extend their winning streak to three or more terms in the White House,” Nate Silver notes. “If she ran even a point or two stronger than a ‘generic’ Democrat, the odds would shift meaningfully in her favor, holding other circumstances equal.”

But say Clinton doesn’t run. That changes everything, doesn’t it? Any Democratic primary without her would be dubbed “wide open.” Joe Biden may try to succeed his boss either way. But he is eminently beatable, as every aspiring alternative knows. He wouldn’t scare anyone away.

I won’t speculate about whether she’ll run. We’ll know in time. I’ll just say that it matters now that we don’t know, insofar as the uncertainty itself affects present behavior among certain Democrats.

I’d prefer it if Hillary Clinton stayed out of future races. My instinct is that she’d abuse executive power and civil liberties every bit as much as the man who appointed her to be secretary of state, especially now that he has acclimated the left to transgressing against transparency and the rule of law. What I can’t deny to Democrats is the likelihood that her foreign policy experience would permit her to retain her party’s edge on those issues, especially if she ran against someone as inexperienced as Marco Rubio, whose foreign-policy chops are hard to take seriously.

Grizzled feels more reassuring than boyish, does it not?

That isn’t to say she’d be a lock in the general election. About the only prediction I’m willing to make about Election 2016 is that Hillary Clinton would be a strong candidate barring a scandal.

But “likeable enough” to win?

What I’ll be most interested to see, if she does run, is how the conservative movement reacts to her candidacy. With relative sanity, insofar as they can’t very well accuse her of being a Kenyan anti-colonialist? With a return to the anti-Clintonian fervor of the 1990s? I suspect the latter reaction wouldn’t play well. Politicians who hang around long enough seem to become inured even to scandals in which they were actually caught red-handed. There isn’t anything so clear cut in Clinton’s past, and if many Americans are like me, the word “Whitewater” would send an involuntary shudder of dread coursing through the population, as if we were collectively told we’d have to re-watch the pre-trial motions from the O.J. Simpson trial while sequestered in a cheap hotel with nothing for diversion but Clinton-era back issues of The American Spectator.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Can see the family blocs in 3rd world countries ready to jump on this opportunity to justify nepotism . . . do the right thing USA. Political culture is bad enough as is. Then the impossibly timely occurance below :

First stomach virus THEN concussion after ‘accepting’ the run for Presidency? (After Bill then Hillary, what next? Clinton’s children for President as well? Might as well run and declare USA a monarchy . . . no hate there but the 3rd world really cannot do with any justifications for nepotism arising from USA of all places! The Presidency of the United States and even so many high official posts should never be a hand down post, if a seat has been held by a family member, no way should the seat be allowed to another from the Clintons – the friends and cronies issue of seat/post hand downs are already bad enough, don’t start a trend . . . ) False flag or a warning by greater forces or even a warning by USA to 3rd world countries in the form of a false flag? Anything to put a stop to nepotism which destroys democracy and leads to dictatorship.

ARTICLE 10

Charlie Gonzalez’s Departure from Congress Marks End to Political Dynasty – Published December 17, 2012 – Fox News Latino

Charlie Gonzalez

San Antonio, Tex. – The retirement from Congress of Rep. Charlie Gonzalez is ending a half-century streak during which his father, then he, served in Congress, representing their San Antonio district.

The outgoing chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus served 14 years after replacing his famous father, Henry B. Gonzalez, who carved out a lasting legacy as a political reformer and civil rights leader.

Charlie Gonzalez, a Texas Democrat, is returning to private life after deciding to not seek an eighth term. Taking his seat is Joaquin Castro, whose family packs its own celebrity pedigree: His twin brother is San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, a rising star on the national stage who was the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention this year.

Charlie Gonzalez told the San Antonio Express-News that he’s leaving with a “sense of sadness.”

“It’s a job, but it’s an incredible job. The people, the surroundings, nothing compares to it,” Gonzalez said. “It is bittersweet. That is the best way to describe it.”

Charlie Gonzalez was first elected in 1988. His father served for 37 years and was chairman of the House Banking Committee, which wielded power over financial institutions and was instrumental in pushing reforms. The elder Gonzalez used that clout to push for public housing and programs for the homeless.

Larry Hufford, a political science professor at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, said the elder Gonzalez pursued social justice in a time when it wasn’t fashionable. Charlie Gonzalez represented a 20th congressional district that, by the end of this last term, covered impoverished barrios on the city’s West side as well as middle-class and affluent neighborhoods to the north.

When it came to national issue, Charlie Gonzalez used his status Hispanic Caucus chairman to push for immigration reform.

“Charlie was able to carry on that legacy with a much different style; more low-keyed but very effective,” Hufford said.

Charlie Gonzalez dismissed suggestions that he could wind up being an appointee in President Barack Obama’s second term or be elected to a statewide office. A Democrat hasn’t been elected statewide in Texas since 1994.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Gonzalez’s decision to leave Congress marks the “end of an era.”

“To decide on my own when to leave Congress, that wasn’t a decision wasted on me,” Charlie Gonzalez said. “I’m a blessed individual. Rather than having circumstances imposed on my life, I’m looking forward to this next chapter in my life. It is my encore career.”

This is based on a story by The Associated Press.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Rare example of ethics. there is nothing beneficial personally for Gonzalez in quitting, but every such quit makes Democracy stronger and makes nepotism and oligarchy weaker. THIS should be the criteria for state awards or monuments than anything else. There is no end to wealth and power, and once enough politicians focus their value system on higher values away from the greed or power-madness fog, the super-pac, too big to fail, and plutocrat/corporate lobbyist and eventually the economy issues, will be easier to fathom and deal with. This is a form of ethics, as preventing nepotism is as dangerous as corruption in politics.

Tanis Baker, 21, dressed as a ninja to ‘strike fear in the hearts of criminals
He was arrested after officers who spotted him became concerned
He was soon surrounded by armed police, dogs and a helicopter
Two hidden rucksacks containing smokebombs and costumes found after arrest

Comic book fan: Tanis Baker told police he was a vigilante in a ninja costume after police arrested him while armed with a homemade wooden Samurai sword

A would-be vigilante was arrested by armed police after he dressed up as a ninja and armed himself with a wooden Samurai sword.

Mystery man-in-black Tanis Baker, 21, wanted to ‘strike fear’ in the hearts of criminals in his neighbourhood just like his comic book idols.

But a court heard Baker ended up on the wrong side of the law after dressing up in ninja-style black body armour and a mask.

He armed himself with smoke bombs and a home-made wooden Samurai sword then crouched in the darkness in a park ready to pounce on any troublemakers.

But a police officer saw Baker in the shadows – and he called for back-up because of his concerns over the mystery figure.

Within minutes he was surrounded by armed officers, police dogs and a helicopter hovering overhead above Beechwood Park in Newport, South Wales.

He was arrested and officers found two hidden rucksacks containing seven smoke bombs and other vigilante costumes.

Magistrates at Cwmbran, South Wales, heard he told police he was a ‘vigilante in a costume’ and that he wanted to help people in trouble.

He claimed to be the ‘eyes and ears’ of the police on the streets and wanted to strike fear into criminals.

The probation officer who assessed him said Baker was a fan of American comic book superheroes.

His probation report said: ‘He seems to get confused between fantasy and reality and sometimes had trouble distinguishing between what was in comic books and what was real life.’

The court heard that in real life Baker is no superhero but works as a barman in a snooker club in Newport, South Wales.

Hi-ya! Mr Tanis said he dressed up as a ninja to ‘strike fear’ in the hearts of criminals in Newport (picture posed by model)

Louise Warren, defending, said: ‘Baker was bullied for many years and struggled growing up in his neighbourhood.

‘He was attacked by a gang of youths while out with his sister a year ago, but police were unable to find the offenders.

‘Since then Baker has wanted to help the police to protect society.’

The court heard Baker was asked what he would do if he encountered a real crime and said he had not thought that far ahead.

Superhero: How Baker might have looked when he was arrested while dressed as a vigilante ninja

He was given a 12-month supervision order and ordered to carry out 60 hours unpaid work.

Chairman of the magistrates Paul Lavin, said: ‘You may have thought you were helping but you caused a lot of trouble.

‘Do not do this in future or else you’ll be in big trouble.’

Baker, of Cwmbran, South Wales, admitted having an offensive weapon in a public place.

He declined to comment after the case.

Storm in a teacup as The Ninja of Newport has to meet the authorities somehow when he makes his introduction but now he could supply them with a trusty Ninjaphone to ring him in their hour of need to save the day and help restore law and order showing the baddies there’s a new guy in town and his name is THE NINJA OF NEWPORT!!! *plays national anthem*

– Stuart , Edinburgh Scotland, United Kingdom, 13/12/2012 18:34

We need more vigilantes on the street, but we criminalise them instead. Take Phoenix jones of Seattle, he and his friends do a great job, lawfully and prevent crimes, as well as assisting law officers.

– Illuminati cards , Bunker, 13/12/2012 18:49

What part was illegal ? Smoke bombs aren’t illegal, they are let off at paintballing sites, and wooden sticks aren’t illegal unless something new has happened, that makes drumming against the law.

– mileage , Barry, 13/12/2012 18:49

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Look here anyone is allowed to cosplay a ninja or favourite super hero (or Otaku genre!) character. Orwell has taken over Newport. More ‘ninjas’ or cosplayers should lurk ‘ in the shadows ‘, SPECIFICALLY to see what the local enforcement does. Good work Tanis! Now we all know that Newport is not a free sort of place. A really free minded place would give a verbal warning or even co-opt the ‘ninja’ as an eccentric member of the neighbourhood watch who refused to work with the formal watch. More cosplayers! And know that permission for carrying actual weapons can be obtained and if registered should not be an offence.

But a wooden sword? Thats not even a weapon. A really long carving knife is more dangerous than a wooden sword and is legal to carry around. A handgun is more dangerous than the above and still is legal. Lurking might be addressed with a simple request. And the reasons given are only to protect society! What gives Newport? More cosplayers and lurkers EVERYWHERE! How about openly walking around with masks, costumes and ‘lurking’ in corners for the rest of the week Newporters! I’m surprised Tanis did not challenge the judgment. Where’s that US culture of freedom and vigilante-ism? For the conservative types, try Cowboys and Indians with camping knives, whips and 6 shooters for a start . . . set up camp in a ‘lurky’ area EVERYDAY in shifts. See what the local enforcement does . . . we’ll know where Orwell LURKS instead – then set up a map of ‘people friendly’ and ‘people unfriendly’ places, the 99% will know how to vote or which laws to amend . . .

House Speaker John Boehner has made a decision that will make some wealthy Americans squeal, while making most Americans smile.

Boehner, after weeks of rhetoric that Republicans and Democrats were miles apart on fiscal cliff talks, relented on a stance that high earners shouldn’t see higher taxes. Now, Boehner has agreed to raise taxes on Americans making more than $1 million, reversing an earlier position that all Bush Era tax cuts should stand.

The move by Boehner is particularly significant for several reasons. First, it’s a gesture toward compromise— Democrats wanted taxes raised on Americans making more than $250,000, while Republicans, at first, would have none of it—and suggests the two sides may finally become serious about averting the fiscal cliff. Next, the tax hikes would increase federal coffers by some $1 trillion over 10 years; President Obama has demanded $1.4 trillion in new revenue, but at least the pols’ figures are growing closer. And Boehener’s decision is a refreshing signal that, when confronted with dire forecasts—like the one that predicts a recession to start 2013 if the fiscal cliff happens—Washington, D.C can put aside partisinism and past promises. Though, I imagine that Grover Norsquist takes little glee from Boehner’s shift.

Republicans are the first to sacrifice a sacred cow. Now, Democrats must too. What mostly impedes progress? Some $200 billion. That’s the difference between the spending cuts in federal health care programs that Republicans want ($600 billion) and Democrats want ($400 billion).

Investors will probably take this move by the pols as evidence that a deal will eventually come. We haven’t piled out of stocks quite like you might think. Indeed, the major benchmarks this month have gained about 4%. There hasn’t been that complete flight to safety—into the cash-generative arms of Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Walt Disney—and away from risk—fleeing the speculation around a Research In Motion comeback or better times for Alpha Natural.

Still, the cliff today looks less like a chasm than it did just a few days earlier.

Reach Abram Brown at abrown@forbes.com.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Squeal? What they earn in a year is an entire lifetimes 401K or many times more than 401K which the 99% takes decades to earn, these wealthy Americans are just SPOILT. Boehner did good, and if the wealthy Americans are too squealy, they are welcome to move to a favourite country of their choice – as mentioned before all assets a country has are land and resource divided by number of citizens not useless fiat. the US A will be happy to have 1 citizen less and more to share among those who stay.

ARTICLE 12.5

French wealthy ‘feel victimised by tax’ – by Hugh Schofield – 10 December 2012 Last updated at 15:02 GMT Help

Actor Gerard Depardieu has become the latest wealthy person to flee France’s 75% tax on those earning over 1m euros a year.

The star has bought a house over the border in the Belgian village of Nechin.

France’s richest man, Bernard Arnault has already applied for Belgian citizenship and thousands of other wealthy French people are making the move.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

The ‘wealthiest’ will NEVER pay enough because in 1 year they earn 10 lifetimes what most ‘wealthiest’ Frenchmen earn in decades EVEN AFTER TAX. No place for Marie Antoinettes here . . . and 75% tax is not enough because they can hold assets up to 75,000% of what the ordinary french person has with the very wealthiest earning 7500% of what the 99% does EVEN AFTER TAX. 75% of 100 million of the less ecxeptional wealthiest is still 25 million in earnings, 75% of 10 million is 2.5 million in earnings which is easily 10 times what the 99% earn in a lifetime . . . Victimised?

Some Frenchmen can’t even buy French bread or have a French roof! That money goes to social services not banquets for the French officials I hope, otherwise time to storm the Bastille again . . . 75% tax is farcical considering the above facts.

The issue of child prostitution and its supposed alter-ego, adult prostitution, are personal to me because I’ve experienced both, having been prostituted between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two.

I sometimes think of what those who knew nothing of me would have thought of me, as they caught glimpses of me, on the different stages of those seven years. Who doubts that the majority would have looked at my young teenaged self and wondered what sort of world we lived in? And who doubts, if they’re honest, that many would have looked at my young adult self and wondered what sort of women populated it?

This is the dichotomy of adult and child and they are viewed as very separate, very distinct, so that there is a clearly perceived line between these stages, these ages, but in fact it is not a line. It is a bridge. It is a bridge that spans the in-between; that gap that connects the points in the lives of so many women who were prostituted first as children then as adults. I lived that bridge in my own prostitution life, when I was turning from a child into a woman, and I was used sexually for money on most of the days that made up my adolescence, as I was before in childhood and afterwards in early adulthood. And here is the crux of the matter: it was all the same nightmare to me.

People chose though, before and after those in-between years, whether I was blameless or blameworthy. In the interim, while I existed in the in-between, each individual who looked at me or fucked me had the privilege of making up their own mind. Many did, and most chose the latter.

After that, when I was identifiably a woman, it was not a case of ‘most’ anymore, but ‘almost all’ – because almost all those who looked at me in my young adulthood decided that I’d chosen what was happening, and saw it as what I was doing rather than what was being done to me.

The ‘done to me’ aspect died, you see, along with my adolescence in the perspectives of other people. The problem was it didn’t die, and I was still alive, living the ‘done to me’ reality every day.

As a fourteen-year-old girl, a full year before I ever started prostituting, I first realised that some men felt an actual entitlement to my body. This was perfectly expressed by the extreme belligerence they’d display when I rejected their advances. They would be so angry. ‘How dare you?’ said their actions. I couldn’t make any sense of that attitude. It was literally like someone was speaking in a foreign language to me, and it was a foreign language in a sense; it was the language of sexual entitlement. I became fluent in the language eventually, but fluent in the sense of someone speaking a language not of their origin; someone who can understand it audibly, but will never be able to write it.

At that time though, I couldn’t imagine how anyone could think it was okay to walk up to someone on the street and wrap your arms around them, or grope somebody, or growl what you’d like to do to them into their ear. But I had all these experiences as a fourteen-year-old girl and I’d had three approaches by paedophiles as a pre-pubescent child, and still I could not fathom why and how this was supposed to be acceptable in the view of these men, why this was supposed to be okay. I remember one man’s surprise and affront as he told me “You’re very standoffish!” after I pulled away from a physical embrace I didn’t initiate, ask for, permit or fucking want.

These experiences came thick and fast from the age of fourteen, when I began to be more noticeably developing breasts. It is little wonder I became fluent in the language of male sexual entitlement. Facial expressions, aggressive stances, weary sighs, protracted silences – all these too make up part of that language, all these are used to communicate the idea that you’re expected to consent when a man decides he will have rights to your body.

So I’d had some schooling, in that sense, as to what prostitution expected of me. What I didn’t know was how bad it was going to get. I couldn’t have known that before I experienced it. It was unknowable. Well, I soon found out, and what I found out didn’t get any better on the day I turned eighteen and it didn’t get any better on the day I turned twenty-one either.

They bother me, these stupid irrelevant lines that are drawn that attempt to divide the lived reality of the prostitution experience based on whether a female is fifteen or seventeen, seventeen or nineteen, eighteen or twenty. They are diversions to the central matter at hand; they divert from the core issue. They disappear the fact that this is wrong, not only by degrees that deepen with the youthfulness of its target, but by its nature, so that all those who’ve been paid for sex they do not want have suffered sexual abuse. There is a shelf-life for women in prostitution, but there is no shelf-life for the nature of prostitution. Its abusive core does not morph into something else on a person’s eighteenth birthday. Not that many men wait that long in the first place.

And on that note, people need to start querying what is the criterion for fuckability according to sex-buying men? What is their divining rod for ‘of age’? Is it a pair of breasts? My experience of prostitution is that it is any pair of breasts, regardless that they’re still developing; and this we’ve got to see as a form of sexual selfishness that has decayed to the point where it’s putrid. It is also a nonsense of a position, because if a pair of breasts at any stage of development signify completed womanhood then every females adulthood actually began at the onset of puberty; not began to form, but began in full. Every woman was a woman before she was a woman, by that ludicrous standard.

I am sure we will have a lot of indignation from sex buyers on this point, but as a fifteen-year-old child with developing breasts I was abused by a multitude of these men every day; men, some of whom would never have considered themselves paedophiles or predators or abusers – and I saw the same men pay to use the bodies of other adolescents with breasts, one of them just thirteen years old, so I can assure the reader that these men assured themselves wherever there was the presence of breasts there was the absence of childhood.

Added to this, men who buy sex are obsessed with the act of despoilment; they are, as a group, blatantly obsessed with the desire to fuck the youngest girl they can find. The upshot of this of course is that there is great commercial value placed on youth in prostitution. I have thought at length and written a little about Prostitution and the Commercial Value of Youth, and I know both that this exists as a reality in prostitution and that is speaks with great clarity to the putrid sexual selfishness I’ve just mentioned.

So adolescents are fair game in prostitution; I’ve made my point, but it’s important also to look at an uncanny resemblance here: adolescence is the physical reality, the mirror image made flesh and form, of that place where a woman is halfway between being prostituted and being trafficked. That point where women go to other countries knowing they’ll be working in the sex trade, but not knowing what that reality really means, or not knowing that they’ll be charged four and five figure sums for the privilege of their prostitutions organisation. This is another of prostitutions in-betweens. They exist in various forms, and very often these mid-spectrum situations are misrepresented and then misappropriated so that they can be used to gloss over the reality of the sex trade. For example those women who are working back thousands of euros/dollars/pounds of money they supposedly ‘owe’ are not classified as trafficking victims, although that is what they are. The sex industry calls them ‘independent escorts’ and ignores and erases the misery of their lives.

In the same way, people who live prostitution during the transition between childhood and adulthood must be mislabelled and filed away, inconvenient as they are. They must be either a child or an adult according to the sex industry, and also, disturbingly, to some anti-trafficking groups. Some groups decide to find a way around this by subdividing adolescence into stages where those from twelve to fourteen are deemed worthy of sympathy and attention, while fifteen to seventeen-year-olds are brushed to one side with the gut-churning excuse that they have so much more ‘personal agency’.

When, I would like to ask the senior members of these groups, did my personal agency begin? Because by their criterion it seems to me it began at the stroke of midnight as I entered my fifteenth year, which makes me feel like a very sorry version of Cinderella; except the slipper in this fairytale was never going to fit because it had been shattered, and believe me, Prince Charming was nowhere to be seen. I had no more personal agency at fifteen than I had the year before, in fact I had significantly less, because at fourteen I had only six months of homelessness behind me; at fifteen I had a year and a half. In homelessness your desperation increases with time, not decreases. If people think ‘personal agency’ always increases with the forward march of time they are lucky people who’ve never had to deal with the miserable conditions of their own lives intensifying with time, and they’re obviously so detached from that life experience they’ve never even considered it.

By drawing distinctions between trafficking and prostitution, between under and over eighteen, some well-intentioned anti-trafficking organisations acquiesce to the perpetuation of a system known to be extremely violent and damaging while continuing to stigmatise and blame most of its victims. This stigmatisation maintains the disempowerment and marginalisation of the same population these groups want to help. It also empowers the predators who prey on our most vulnerable, whether under or over eighteen.

FreeIrishWoman

ARTICLE 14

Prostitution and the Commercial Value of Youth – Posted on June 3, 2012

People who argue that prostitution would be free of coercion, trafficking, the exploitation of minors – and everything else that prevents it from being some kind of all-above-board consenting-adults-only autonomy party – are people who ignore one vital aspect of prostitutions reality. It is the commercial value of youth.

Just as in some actual industries, like modelling or professional dance, youth is highly prized among attributes. Unlike modelling or dance though, youth in prostitution is prized far above beauty and the fluidity of movement. In order to be most highly in demand in prostitution, you don’t need to be the prettiest flower in the field; you just need to be among the youngest. And what you can or cannot do with your body is irrelevant; it just matters that it hasn’t been on the planet for very long.

One of the commonest questions that comes through on any brothels phone line is ‘What age is the youngest girl you have?’ I could not count the times I have been asked that question, and I defy anybody who has answered a brothels phone to tell the blatant lie that it is not the commonest question they’ve been asked too.

The commercial value of youth is so profoundly built-in to prostitution that women routinely lie about their age in order to generate more business. The clients know this, of course, and even as women are shaving a few years off clients are adding a few on. ‘I’m twenty-six – I’ll tell him I’m twenty-three’ / ‘She’s twenty-three? – that means she’s twenty-six’.

Nobody’s fooling anybody here, and the only thing the whole pathetic charade is any good for is the revealing nature of what’s going on behind the pretence. What it reveals, of course, is that men who buy bodies for sex usually want to buy the youngest body they can find.

Last year it was reported to the BBC that prostitutes as young as thirteen were working the streets in Swindon, in the English county of Wiltshire. “Come here at the weekend and you’ll get 13-year-old girls to 19-year-old girls out here”, one prostitute told reporters.

When I read reports like these I just sigh. It tires me to pre-empt the shock people will express. It tires me to imagine that shock, whether it is genuine or not, because if it is genuine then that proves we have a long way to go in educating people about the reality of prostitution, and if it is not, well then, here is yet more in a tsunami of evidence that there are those who do not want the reality of prostitution understood.

Whenever any evidence of teenaged prostitution is revealed the pro-prostitution lobby move immediately to put forth the preposterous assertion that this town is somehow different or unique. The attitude is always either ‘thirteen-year-olds, good Lord, who ever heard of such a thing?’ – or ‘thirteen-year-olds, good Lord, we could clear up this situation if we legalised prostitution!’ – as if somehow the demand for adolescent bodies would vanish if only we’d make the sale of adult bodies okay!

Usually, however, they will simply deny that adolescent prostitution is widespread, or that adolescents are much in demand in the first place.

‘How do we know this is true?’ will come the query from the pro-prostitution lobby. It is not a query in the genuine sense of the word. A real query seeks an answer. This query seeks to obscure the same answer it purports to be seeking.

This will seem strange and confusing to some people. It is neither strange nor confusing to me; I’ve been exposed to the tactics of the pro-prostitution lobby for too long to be surprised or confused by these sorts of seemingly tangled and nonsensical tactics. What people need to understand is that they are not nonsensical. These are obscurest policies and they are purposeful and predictable, and when you understand their purpose you will have no problem predicting them too.

Their purpose is consistently the same; it is to deny and refute the sick and twisted nature of what actually goes on in prostitution. The truth they don’t want to you know is that men who pay for sex will most often opt to pay for a fifteen-year-old over a seventeen-year-old, a seventeen-year-old over a nineteen-year-old, a nineteen-year-old over a twenty-one-year-old, and so on and so forth.

Now, let me be very clear about this – I will be called a liar for having asserted the above. It will be said that I am trying to demonise punters, that I am telling lies about their preferences and proclivities. I wish I was. In my first year in prostitution, when I was fifteen-years-old, I was used by countless hundreds of men; I truly couldn’t say how many. I saw up to ten men a day so you may do the maths for yourself (the thoughts of doing that calculation disturbs me). As I stated in my Examiner article back in February, men were so obviously aroused by my youth it made them climax very quickly, so I soon learned to tell them how old I was in order to shorten the whole ordeal. I made it a policy; it was one of the first things I said when I got into the car – not that I needed to bring up the subject because it was usually one of the first questions asked of me.

In all those hundreds of men, one man, just ONE, turned his van around and brought me back to where he’d found me.

So yes, those who advocate for legalised or decriminalised prostitution will do their damnedest to obscure the truth about the high commercial value placed on young bodies in prostitution, all the while squawking ‘Where’s the evidence? Where’s the evidence?’ – like some kind of belligerent and demented parrot, with all the repetitiveness and severe comprehension issues you’d expect. All beak and no brains, in other words.

This is to be expected; of course the pro-prostitution lobby don’t want you to know that girls who are post-puberty by only a year or two are routinely lusted after, sought out, highly prized and then abused for enough years ‘till they’ve lost much of their commercial value. If that was widely known, it would do a great deal of damage to the autonomous, sexually-liberated, empowerment fantasy depiction they are consistently trying to peddle.

As for ‘Where’s the evidence?’ – I don’t need to ask that question. When I was a fifteen-year-old prostitute I was FAR more in-demand than I ever was as a twenty-two-year-old, even though at twenty-two I was slim, pretty, and an extremely youthful woman; but therein lay the problem. I was a woman.

There is huge emphasis placed on the commercial value of youth in prostitution. ‘The evidence’ is in every brothel and red-light zone in the land, and I know that because I lived the evidence.

A good blog post typifying a particular ‘staid’ type of sex worker who happened to start working out of necessity early from environmental issues, but has somehow remained in the field by choice while not liking the field too much. Perhaps some personal issues about being denied other opportuunities when younger. @FreeIrishWoman seems to enjoy the sense of indignation working as a sex worker and who knows in some twisted manner, gains strength at the cutting at the conscience of her clients one can read from the writing. The ethical hirers who do want 100% consensual and a clear conscience should give this particular worker a skip. The ‘mean’ lot who gravitate from morality to desire from religious probably, would doubtless be twice attracted. While sex would be available, sex positivism is not to be found here!

Decriminalising prostitution could mean better safety and improved relations with police for sex workers. A series of gang attacks on brothels in east London has triggered calls for changes to the prostitution laws after victims who reported knifepoint robberies said they ended up being threatened with prosecution. A police investigation has been launched as senior Labour and Conservative members of the London assembly and the English Collective of Prostitutes allege that violent crime is being given a lower priority than less serious sex offences.

The attacks highlight the growing debate over calls for New Zealand’s pioneering decriminalisation of sex work to be considered – an approach recently supported by the Association of Chief Police Officers. What is said by sex workers to be a spate of robberies – involving cash and jewellery – coincides with an increase in police raids on east London addresses being used as brothels before the 2012 London Olympics.

The first address targeted was in Barking, east London, on 6 December. A video showing five men apparently breaking into another house in the area being used by sex workers is also being studied by officers. The women who made the first complaint allege they recognise some of the gang members from the YouTube clip. In a third attack, at a different address, a woman who worked as a maid at a brothel is alleged to have been raped by the gang. None of the victims there reported the offence for fear of being charged by officers with living off the proceeds of prostitution; the police say they are so far unaware of this incident.

The ECP said changes to the law, in response to fears over the forcible trafficking of foreign sex workers into Britain, have made it more difficult for women to work together in houses for safety. A letter of complaint sent by Niki Adams, a leading ECP activist who works with Legal Action for Women, to the borough police commander in Barking last month, said the way the investigation into the first incident had been pursued had discouraged “sex workers from reporting attacks”. The letter continued: “The 6 December attack was at knifepoint and the women felt they had to try and protect themselves. They think the assailants may well be the same people who have robbed them before, who have got away with it, and so have returned and become more violent as they have got bolder.

“Targeting women for prosecution in this way undermines any attempts to catch those who attack and exploit sex workers … We are receiving reports of incidents where women have been attacked and their attackers have told them brazenly that they know women won’t dare go to the police.” Adams believes there may have been as many as 20 attacks in the area over the past two years. The Metropolitan police confirmed it was aware of the 6 December attack and the YouTube video and is investigating whether the attacks are linked. “We can confirm that we were called to an alleged incident of aggravated burglary at an address in Victoria Road, Barking,” a statement said.

“Patrolling officers arrived at the scene and were quickly accompanied by scene of crime officers and detectives from Barking and Dagenham CID. Detectives also visited the venue on a further occasion to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the incident. “Unfortunately, those at the address were unwilling to substantiate the allegation or further assist with the investigation despite a number of attempts for them to do so. The case remains under investigation and should any further information come to light it will of course be vigorously pursued.” The force said “a notice has been served to the registered owner of the venue in Victoria Road under the auspices of section 33a of the Sexual Offences Act 1956. The notice formally notified the recipient that they were liable to prosecution should the premises in Victoria Road remain in use as a brothel”. Referring to the YouTube video, the police said: “We are looking to see if the attacks are linked. Officers take any such reports extremely seriously and actively encourage all members of the community, particularly those who may be vulnerable to such incidents, to come forward and contact police. “Officers at Barking and Dagenham work hard to ensure that the borough remains a safe place for all residents. The welfare of victims remains our primary concern and we acknowledge that some members of the community are more vulnerable and susceptible to crime. “We strive to encourage and support female victims and to assist us further we are in the process of launching a bespoke multi-agency victim care service. This will see female victims receiving the best possible support and will include fast-track referrals to housing and health professionals as well as Safer Neighbourhood reassurance intervention.”

Prostitution itself is not illegal but associated activities – such as kerb crawling, placing advertising cards in phoneboxes and working in premises with more than one person available for paid sex – are outlawed.

Last November Simon Byrne, Acpo’s lead officer on prostitution and sexual exploitation, suggested there was a need for a fresh look at the legal balance. Then deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester, Byrne is in the process of moving to the Met as assistant commissioner. “There is a great amount of academic research available, much of which supports the view that an alternative approach is needed,” he wrote on his official Acpo blog. “An example would be the decriminalisation and regulation of brothels in Australia and New Zealand, not an answer to all of the related issues but certainly a solution to some.

“More of those involved in sex work in Australia and New Zealand can now access health services with ease, whilst maintaining more personal security in an emotive area for policing.”

Another proponent of reform is Andrew Boff, a Conservative member of the London assembly. “The law is framed so as to put women [sex workers] into the most vulnerable position,” he said. “The changes brought in by the last government seemed to [be derived from] the view that every single worker in the sex trade was trafficked. “People are not willing to come forward over these attacks. When they report them, the women themselves have had action taken against them. I’m compiling a report on the problem for Boris Johnson.”

Len Duvall, the leader of the Labour group at the London assembly, said: “We need to examine in greater detail information and case studies from those countries that have sought to legalise prostitution, including the model put forward by New Zealand, especially if it provides a degree of protection for sex workers and reduces crimes associated with prostitution.

“Where brothels have not posed a problem to the wider community and there has been no evidence of sex trafficking, I have heard evidence that the police have taken an inconsistent and heavy-handed approach in dealing with sex workers. There is also evidence that crimes against sex workers are being ignored.”

Earlier this month, Sheila Farmer, a sex worker who operated with other women out of shared premises, had charges of brothel-keeping against her dismissed at Croydon crown court. The Crown Prosecution Service said there had been no change in enforcement policy; the unexpected failure of a witness to appear led to the charge being withdrawn. Farmer said she had chosen to work with other women for safety because she had been attacked previously when working alone.

Nigel Richardson, the solicitor who represented her, said he was aware of another case in Surrey where women had reported an attack on their flat from a rival operation. “They were visited by two men who threatened the women and were pouring petrol around the place,” he said.

“My client called the police. Officers intially took the attack very seriously but eventually arrested my client. The men were never brought to book for an assault but my client was prosecuted for running a brothel.”

Tim Barnett, the British-born former New Zealand MP who pushed through his adopted country’s decriminalisation legislation in 2003, was in London before Christmas where he briefed Boff and Duvall. “We said let’s make the law the best to minimise harm,” he said at the time. “We set up a review of the legislation. A number of people said the number of sex workers would rise.

“So we reviewed it after five years in 2008. The review didn’t find any increase and there was an improvement in the relationship with the police. Sex workers were using their rights under the legislation to deal with poor-quality brothel owners or clients who had been behaving abusively.”

Think deeper and not be influenced by the agenda laden NPPs . . . this is NOT to be used as ‘proof’ of support of rape. This is the offense that might cause rape . . .

ARTICLE 16

NHS doctors to be forced to work weekends for the first time in push for improved seven-day a week care – by Daily Mail Reporter – PUBLISHED: 15:45 GMT, 16 December 2012 | UPDATED: 23:19 GMT, 16 December 2012

Oupatients appointments and surgical procedures could be carried out on Saturdays and Sundays for the first time
The shake up is part of plans by Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the new NHS Commissioning Board

Seven days: Sir Bruce Keogh plans to introduce seven day working to the NHS

Doctors could be forced to work at weekends under plans to create a health service with supermarket-style opening hours.

Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS’s medical director, said that patients, like shoppers, should be entitled to the same quality of service on Saturday and Sunday as during the week.

He said it was no longer acceptable for hospitals and GPs’ surgeries to operate for the convenience of their staff at the expense of patients and that clinics and day case operations should be available seven days a week.

It should also be possible to get weekend hospital appointments for scans and GPs should provide slots to treat patients at weekends, he said.

The proposal is to be considered by the NHS Commissioning Board in an effort to improve access to healthcare.

He told the Sunday Times: ‘Our system has been based around providing as good a working environment as you can for the people who work in the health service, which isn’t necessarily matched with what the people who want services have.

‘If you wanted a day case operation, and you didn’t want to take a day off work, why can’t you have it on a Saturday or Sunday?’

‘Tesco have had to go through this – it was a complex issue for them – we will need to look at the terms and conditions or service of people.’

He added that having empty clinics and operating theatres on a Saturday and Sunday is a waste of NHS resources.

Research by the board found that a patient admitted to hospital on a Sunday was 16 per cent more likely to die than if they were admitted on a Wednesday.

Keogh can introduce the changes and implement financial rewards and penalties to ensure that hospitals follow the guidelines.

Contract changes: Many medical professionals will have to work Saturdays and Sundays for the first time

The plans will no doubt anger doctors who will be keen to protect their current working hours.

Medical professionals will not receive any extra money for working weekends but will be given days off in the week instead.

The proposals will be fully outlined in the NHS Commissioning Board’s first planning guidance which will detail how health funds will be spent ahead and which will be released on Tuesday.

The British Medical Association (BMA) last night rejected the idea that that the medical profession could learn from private firms such as Tesco but it was ‘open’ to discussing seven day working.

How to charge for medical treatment.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Try this. Instead of all doctors having Saturdays and Sundays off, some doctors could have Mondays and Tuesdays off, then the overlap from different shift doctors should cover everything.

Day shift should focus on geriatrics and paediatrics (adult people working will put off visits to nighttime and will not visit during the day) while evening shift will be more popular for the adults. Midnight shift should have the least staff (most people sleeping), though everyone not of the above groups might visit, emergency services from racers gettti8ng into accidents and drunks getting into fights will make up the most of this shift. The fact that the one can get medical aid 24/7 makes for a safer feeling in any district overall.

ARTICLE 17

Is this the end of paper banknotes? Plastic version could be in your pocket in just three years – by Rebecca Evans – PUBLISHED: 00:04 GMT, 17 December 2012 | UPDATED: 00:04 GMT, 17 December 2012

Overhaul could see environmentally-friendly notes introduced from 2015
Have proved a success since being introduced in Australia in 1988
Plastic lasts much longer and are more hygienic but more expensive to make

Plastic banknotes are set to be introduced in Britain, replacing the paper money used for more than 300 years.

The radical overhaul could see the more durable, waterproof and harder-to-counterfeit polymer sterling notes in circulation within three years.

The Bank of England has put out a £1billion tender from 2015 for the printing of notes at its press in Debden, Essex.

Paper money could be replaced within three years after being used for more than three centuries

Part of this process demands that bidders are able to cope with the change from paper to plastic from the start of the contract.

Since 2003, the contract has been held by De La Rue – one of only two makers of polymer notes.

The company, which prints more than 150 currencies, has just produced new plastic banknotes for the Pacific island of Fiji.

Plastic notes were first introduced in Australia in 1988 as a measure against counterfeiting.

They have proved a success, and are apparently particularly popular with surfers who are able to keep money in their pockets without it disintegrating.

Other countries to issue polymer notes include New Zealand, Romania, Papua New Guinea, Mexico and Vietnam. In Northern Ireland, a plastic fiver was introduced in 1999 to mark the Millennium.

The Bank’s chief cashier Chris Salmon has already said plastic notes were being looked at as a possibility to replace paper money

Plastic notes last much longer than cotton fibre-based paper ones. For instance, an Australian $5 bill lasts about 40 months, against six months for a £5 note.

Polymer notes are more hygienic as they absorb fewer bacteria, harder to tear or crease – making them easier for vending machines – and waterproof, even able to survive being put in the washing machine.

A key feature is a clear window, which normally contains an ‘optical variable device’ that splits light into its component colours and is extremely hard to counterfeit. Plastic notes can also contain holograms.

They are also more environmentally friendly as fewer need to be produced and they can be recycled.

However, they are considerably more expensive to produce and would create an initial cost as ATMs and vending machines would have to be adapted to accept them.

The Bank’s chief cashier Chris Salmon had already revealed it was investigating the possibility of polymer or plastic-coated banknotes.
‘Today I’m going to make some £20 notes out of this old plastic washing-up bottle’

It is understood that the Bank will initially introduce lower denominations, such as the fiver, which are in wider use so become dog-eared more rapidly.

De La Rue’s chief executive Tim Cobbold said: ‘If you think about the life of a banknote, it takes quite a hammering.

‘It’s being folded, it’s being crunched, it’s in and out of wallets and it could be in the wet or dry.’

But financial expert David Buik, of the retail and trading services firm Cantor Index, believes the conversion to plastic notes should not be rushed.

‘I think it’s something that needs to be more carefully thought out,’ he said.

‘Money laundering is a huge problem and if the security measures introduced could be used to make notes more traceable, then that would be very good.

‘But it needs to be applied internationally, the major countries all need to be singing from the same hymn sheet.’

A spokesman for the Bank of England said: ‘No definite decisions have been taken yet but the Bank is considering all options.’

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Paper 300 years? Try precious metals 3000 or more years. Barter possible more than 30,000 . . . Parallel currencies in PM used in the manner of barter should put an end to the plastic note b.s.. Make your own localised currency citizens! Stop ceding economic control to central national banks.

As the 13th General Elections draws near, UMNO has been showing signs of being increasingly insecure and uncertain about its future hold on power.

Being unable to counter our ideas and policies in a constructive way, it has instead launched a relentless campaign of hate and fear mongering. With the mainstream media at its complete disposal, UMNO is using every trick in the book to sow racial discord and instil fear among the people of the consequences that will befall them when Pakatan Rakyat comes to power.

Lies and May 13 scare-mongering

The just-concluded UMNO General Assembly provided yet another pretext to go on overdrive in this offensive of lies and intimidation led by Prime Minister and UMNO President Dato’ Seri Najib Razak. We condemn his reckless statement that Malaysia will lose its sovereignty in three years after Pakatan Rakyat takes over. The idea is sow the seeds of distrust among the people that Pakatan Rakyat leaders are traitors who will pawn the nation’s sovereignty for political power. Citing no facts nor providing any evidence, Najib’s scurrilous suggestion is therefore totally unfounded and can only be made by someone who has neither respect for the truth nor any sense of moral rectitude.

As a prelude to this loss of power scenario, delegates were also falling over each other in raising the spectre of a repeat of May 13th riots if Pakatan Rakyat comes to power. We understand that Wanita chief Dato’ Seri Shahrizat Jalil is trying to revive her political career having been forced to resign as minister by the multimillion ringgit NFC scandal. But to resort to such low hand tactics is inexcusable. To bring back the ghost of May 13th is to attempt to sow animosity among the races particularly between the Malays and the non-Malays and to spread fear among the people of violence and bloodshed if UMNO loses power. This is not only reckless but highly seditious and therefore criminal.

REAL THREAT

It is clear that Pakatan Rakyat has emerged as a real threat to the UMNO-Barisan Nasional hegemony and this has caused guns for hire to make blatant allegations about our leaders acting as proxies for foreign powers with me being singled out as proxy apparently for both the United States and China at the same time! While we may laugh away this non-sensical allegation, the fact is that with the nation-wide print and electronic media completely under its control, UMNO is spreading this lie with the intensity and ferocity that would make Goebbels proud. Employing the method of spreading ‘the big lie’ by constant repetition, the media attempts to paint a scenario of the country facing financial doom and under the control of foreign powers if Pakatan Rakyat takes over.

The UMNO media is also stoking the fire of communal and religious discord publishing the inflammatory racist statements of delegates. The fear mongering in this regard centres on making Muslims feel that Islam will be undermined if Pakatan Rakyat comes to power. According to UMNO, only they are the champions of Islam, not KEADILAN or even PAS. Thus, they spread the lie that apostasy cases will increase and that Malaysia may be turned into a Christian state if UMNO loses power.

Low caliber personal attacks

Najib’s keynote address in the UMNO General Assembly was full of vitriolic against Pakatan Rakyat and personal attacks against its leaders, me in particular in language totally un-befitting a statesman. Should the rakyat continue to bear with leadership of such caliber? What is the policy of the Umno president going forward for the nation? Where are the blue prints for the economy and social justice, for health care, housing and education? Najib must stop this campaign of lies and intimidation.

If he has valid issues with Pakatan Rakyat, then he should accept my invitation for a debate so that all Malaysians will be given the opportunity to see for themselves who is lying and who is telling the truth. Stop hiding behind the protective wall of your propaganda machinery and taking potshots at Pakatan Rakyat and me.

Man up to your position as Prime Minister and face me in the ring!

Anwar Ibrahim is the Leader of the Malaysian Opposition & PKR MP for Permatang Pauh

;to make the opposition disappear. If the opposition makes clear on the above as well though, Najib indeed will have a tough time and who knows be on that slippery Scorpene and Altantuya slope to political and social oblivion . . . as for Anwar, the Rakyat should know that ccording to some sources, only 8% of PKR members vioted for the current PKR Committee. This means that 92% of the PKR members which might not even want some people in the committee (the whole of Anwar’s family is in the committee btw – NEPOTISM) either were not given time to select the committee or were intentionally left out or worse still, did not care at all. On PKR’s part, no attempt was made to ensure that the members voted, possibly because if 92% of those left out voted, Anwar, family blocs and Anwar cliques in PKR might not even make it to the PKR committee which uses the undemocratic practice of CHOOSING who gets to run in what constituency. If no honest attempt is made to revote at at least 66.6% quorum, PKR might as well be deregistered as a political party or the ROS could penalise PKR for having a committee which was not voted at a 66.6% quorum as per democratic principles recognized worldwide. PKR is a very slipshod run political party. Man up and face in the ring? Tak a look at that 8% quorum backyard first . . . what are the 92% saying?

ARTICLE 2

Child marriages: Rethinking the issue — Art Harun – December 04, 2012

DEC 4 — Child marriage has somewhat become something of a phenomenon in Malaysia.

In a New Straits Times report dated June 13, 2010 (republished by asiaonenews), the following was published:

“….according to the 2000 Census, there were 11,400 children below 15 years of age who were married — 6,800 girls and 4,600 boys. Of the 6,800 girls, only 2,450 were Malay. This means that the syariah court gave its consent to each of these 2,450 underage girls to get married.

“The remainder of 4,350 girls were non-Malays comprising 1,550 other Bumiputeras, 1,600 Chinese, 600 Indians, and 600 others. It is not known whether they had got their licence from the relevant minister, but even if they did, it would have been illegal, since there are no legal provisions for a non-Muslim under 16 years to get married.”

The report added:

“Last year,(2009) 479 children under 15 years, two of them boys, were getting ready to tie the knot. And 32 of them were below 10 years. None of them were found to be HIV-positive.

“This is based on Health Ministry statistics of premarital HIV screening for Muslims, a compulsory requirement for those wanting to get married.

“However, it is not certain if any of these applications for marriage were approved by the state religious department.”

The legal age for marriage for non-Muslims in Malaysia is 18 years old. For Muslims, however, the legal age is 16 years old. However, in the case of Muslims in Malaysia, the syariah courts are empowered to allow marriages of children who are under 16 years of age.

There are alarming and disconcerting reports about child marriages in Malaysia. In early 2010, there were reports of two marriages involving 10- and 11-year-old girls married off to men in their 40s in Kelantan. The 11-year-old was later found in a state of shock. The syariah courts later ruled the marriages illegal. The ground for illegality however was not based on whether there was adequate consent from the children or on their respective age but was rather based on procedural non-compliance.

Child marriages, particularly among Muslims in Malaysia, although not a societal norm, are however a socially acceptable practice among a section of the society. Mass weddings involving children are, for instance, carried out. The state lends its approval and sanction either by publicising such weddings on the front page of its mainstream newspapers or by its leaders attending such weddings. In December 2010, for instance, a 14-year-old girl participated in such wedding by marrying a 23-year-old teacher. This was widely reported.

Recently, the syariah court granted permission to a father to marry off his 12-year-old daughter to a 19-year-old boy. In the application for permission, it was cited that the girl had run away to stay with her boyfriend and refused to come home. Marriage was, apparently, the only solution to solve the problem and to protect the family’s honour and reputation.

If only life was that simple.

Let’s consider what the laws of this country say about children under 18 or 16. They can’t enter into a binding contract save for those which affect their necessities. They can’t even buy tobacco products and alcohol. They can’t have a driving licence. They can’t watch movies of certain types without an adult accompanying them. They cannot be contractually employed. They surely can’t vote in a general election. They also cannot enter clubs. Generally, a boy or man can’t have sexual relationship with any girl of 16 or less even with her consent. That would be statutory rape.

Why is that? That is because the law assumes that a girl or any person, regardless of gender, of less than 18 year old (or 16 in the case of statutory rape) is not able to give free consent. For the uninitiated, free consent is a necessary element in a contract or in sexual acts in order to determine whether the acts constitute rape or otherwise.

Regardless of the above, strangely, sexual acts involving girls of 16 or less will be all right and completely legal if she is legally married! The law is indeed an ass!

If children under 18, or as the case may be 16 years of age, are presumed by law not to be able to give free consent to enter into a contract or to have sexual relationship — or to exercise proper judgment whether or not to buy tobacco products or alcohol — on what premise does the state legalise such sexual acts through a state-sanctioned marriage?

What is most unsatisfactory about the marriage of the 12-year-old is the blatant transfer and absolution of parental responsibilities by the parents and the courts to the 19-year-old groom as well as the 12-year-old bride. Reading the case, the first question which crept up in every reasonable person would be, “how can a 12-year-old girl have a boyfriend?” And “how can a 12-year-old run from home to be with her 19-year-old boyfriend?” Then, we would ask “what will happen to the 12-year-old after her marriage?” “How is she going to cope with all the responsibilities that come with a marriage?” “Can she be a good mother?” “Can the 19-year-old support his family?”

On July 19, 2012, Malaysia ratified the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child with the following reservations:

“The Government of Malaysia accepts the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child but expresses reservations with respect to articles 2, 7, 14, 28 paragraph 1 (a) and 37, of the Convention and declares that the said provisions shall be applicable only if they are in conformity with the Constitution, national laws and national policies of the Government of Malaysia.”

The Convention defines a child as “every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.”

Article 18 provides:

“States Parties shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the principle that both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing and development of the child. Parents or, as the case may be, legal guardians, have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child. The best interests of the child will be their basic concern.”

Article 19 provides:

“States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.”

In view of the aforesaid provisions, which we as a nation have chosen to accept without reservation, it is thus with a degree of perplexity that child marriages, even involving girls as young as 12, are taking place without nary a thought on the welfare of the child and the responsibilities of her parents.

Corrigendum

In “Secular on Non-secular — what history tells us”, I have reproduced a section of the Reid Commission report with a sentence unintentionally omitted. I wish to take responsibility and apologise for that omission. The particular section should read as follows (with the omitted part in bold):

“We have considered the question whether there should be any statement in the Constitution to the effect that Islam should be the State religion. There was universal agreement that if any such provision were inserted it must be made clear that it would not in any way affect the civil rights of non-Muslims. In the memorandum submitted by the Alliance it was stated — ‘the religion of Malaysia shall be Islam. The observance of this principle shall not impose any disability on non-Muslim nationals professing and practising their own religion and shall not imply that the State is not a secular State’.” — art-harun.blogspot.com

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Law is artificial and is not higher than the law governing 2 individuals in what they decide with each other. Sama suka sama (this is Malay for consensual and mutual) is more important than all of the above and can overrule the mere word of law being as aspect of law via spirit of law. A mob of hantu in British smocks (i.e. judges – being rhetorical here) have no right to pressure the young lovers who’s young tender minds doubtless will be impacted by the sheer pathos of society and the false ethos of Syariah or Civil court over emotions between 2 people. The statuary rape concept is nonsense so long as there was genuine love between any persons in any cases. And this is the law of ‘god’ or ‘nature’.

Much like sexuality, attraction is natural or god given, and a whole mob of adults in society should never have any say. As for finance etc.. the state can easily handle that instead of enriching politicians and cronies. The funds should go to allowing these very young couples to set up home etc.. As in normal adult cases, sometimes there will also be divorces, but divorce or even break ups is a mechanism of the environment and people around them influencing them. Without any external influence whatsoever, normal marriage ages should drop drastically which looks like that is what nature intended.

The issue is to ensure the instance education begins for a child that relationships especially life relationships like marriage are taught to them and even citing good yet very clear negative and positive examples of marriage and what entails so that a few months after your child can read and write they will know all the basics but yet also not be influenced. That is why we have PUBLIC EDUCATION, to ensure the insanity of the parent’s marital lives or society’s sexual taboos do not colour the children’s ability to be independent.

The use of the law as above is vicious and manipulative and needs amending.

PETALING JAYA, Dec 4 — The family of former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was linked today to a company that supplies the controversial digital electricity meters to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) alleged to have hiked up energy consumption bills and gained the national utility company billions of ringgit in profit.

According to PKR’s investment bureau chief Wong Chen, Noor Asiah Mahmood, who is the younger sister to Abdullah’s (picture) first wife, the late Tun Endon Mahmood, owns Ombata-Ambak Holdings Sdn Bhd, which has a 15 per cent share in Malaysian Intelligence Meters Sdn Bhd, the latter which is one of five companies contracted by TNB to supply the new digital meters.

Wong alleged that the programme to switch analogue power meters for digital ones had showed consumers would be contributing RM6.88 billion to TNB’s profit over the course of 10 years. The programme has been stopped temporarily on the orders of Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui since October.

“Our research shows TNB has 8.03 million consumers now and the average price for each meter is RM250, therefore this programme had the potential to reach RM2 billion.

“For the financial year 2012, TNB’s revenue from all consumers is RM34.4 billion, if the electronic meter had given a conservative raise of two per cent, the additional burden on consumers would be as much as RM688 million a year.

“Seeing as the life expectancy of this meter is only 10 years, consumers would ultimately have to pay as much as RM6.88 billion to TNB for that duration,” Wong told a news conference at the opposition party’s headquarters here.

PKR strategy director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, who was also present, said the issue was not a small matter as consumers would have to pay up to 50 per cent of the cost of their power bills.

“Therefore, PKR urges TNB to be transparent and responsible in this matter to reveal who are the electronic meter suppliers, the price paid for the meters and whether it was competitively priced at local and international standards, and whether an open tender had been called or was it a direct negotiation?” Nik Nazmi asked.

The Seri Setia state lawmaker also called for TNB to fund an independent body to investigate consumer complaints on the new meters and to act on the findings that bind the utility company to consumers.

Last October, Chin said TNB had halted the replacement of analogue electricity meters with electronic meters until a standard operating procedure could be fixed.

He had made the decision after receiving public complaints saying power consumption had spiked after switching to the new digital meters, causing them to be also billed “retrospectively”.

“This operation will go on but our main task is to educate people on the new meter,” the minister had said then.

However, Chin had said replacing the analogue devices with the new meters would continue for households where the electricity meters were damaged or suspected to have been tampered with, resulting in losses.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

The B*!@#$%s had everything, society gave them all the power to help the nation, believed in their goodness, yet greed still could reach these spiritually weak willed and corrupted men :

i) political power in the (greedy?) bid for PM, cost perhaps B*!@#$%’s mother

Those who keep taking and never regarding those who help them, will never be have enough to pay from places where they have never and do not deserve to work, when time to collect comes. Some of us ‘work’ harder than most, some of the worst just take the efforts, and give away the nation’s treasures and harm the country despite everything. Only the deserving should be given high position – on a net tally, B*!@#$% has harned the nation and done less than what the lowliest street sweeper does for a living . . . and I won’t even get into KJ (and the 4th floor boys) as well . . . Forced Military Conscriptions btw were implemented during B*!@#$%s watch, this is the classic example of the smiling crocodile politician, very disappointing and hopefully not characteristic of the Malays as a race.

ARTICLE 4

GO ON LEAVE, Hisham told – Monday, 03 December 2012 16:06

Former inspector general of police Musa Hassan’s claim of interference by Home minister Hishamuddin Hussein in police affairs has been described as serious, and as such PAS Youth said the latter must go on leave pending a probe.

“Hishamuddin should be a gentleman and emulate Shahrizat (Abdul Jalil, Wanita UMNO head) who took leave following the National Feedlot Corporation scandal,” said PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan.

Musa last week dropped a bombshell ahead of the 66th UMNO general assembly accusing Hishamuddin of violating police protocols by giving instructions to junior police officers and a district police chief without his knowledge.

“So, I highlighted to him (Hishammuddin) Section 4 (1) of the Police Act (1967, which says) that the command and control of the police is by the IGP and not the minister. Of course, I cannot be rude to him as (he is) a minister. I talked to him nicely. He didn’t like it,” said Musa.

Hishamuddin sidestepped the allegation saying it was Musa’s ploy to divert attention from the UMNO meeting.

Musa however dismissed Hishamuddin’s claim as a personal opinion.

Nasrudin meanwhile called for the establishment of an independent commission to investigate Musa’s allegation.

He hoped the police would protect the people “based on law instead of protecting (a) political party by following its instruction blindly”.

-Harakahdaily

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Good. ‘Rule-of-law’ is taking out the political-bureaucracy as well. The judiciary should learn from Musa and take out the obvious among politicians who have harmed the nation – by Human Rights principles, an ex-Police Chief could by popular revolt overturn a government (presumably in Malaysia’s case to grant the below 3 items) as per the Human Rights Charter and Islamic principles of non-discrimination and non-disenfranchisement – to ah . . . ‘protect the minorities’ Human Rights‘ and ‘dignify properly practiced Islam‘ . . . ahem.

The international community is behind both police and judiciary if such actions were taken, and that makes Bar Council a farce for not acting before I posted this and several earlier comments. What happened in some of our lives really? Decades long audits of the system? Looks like the political bunch had better be serious in the future, in any case term limits as well. Perhaps the police could turn the tables on the REAL criminals of the country.

PAS should know that every ethical act they do is being cancelled by every Islamist action of abuse against especially non-Muslims PAS makes. PAS is not moving forward at all and confirms PAS’s use of ethics as an expedient (PAS seems to have no love or understanding of ethics and principles, but knows the value of using the same.) counter-apologist actions to balance Islamism, which is not what almost all Malaysians want. Perhaps PAS is not a political party and more a religious organisation that should go to Al Azhar at Cairo to learn about separation of faith and state.

Sultans know the difference even as Sultans themselves have most probably tacitly approved Malaysia’s other great flaw . . . the APARTHEID OF BUMIPUTRA by not taking initiatives in starting a Royal commission to grant the above 3 items :

Keep selling out human rights principles and accepting inequality as normal, and in the end Kaveas will not deserve to be a HUMAN. (Hate to sound ‘spiritually racist’, but caste stature cannot be erased apparently even with all the wealth and stature in the temporal world that Kaveas has) to accept such status as 2nd class citizens is surely a sign of lower caste ancestry . . . only equality is acceptble . . . ) Traitor to the UN and traitor to the idea of equality and ‘The Enlightenment’ which would never accept the APARTHEID of BUMIPUTRA.

KUALA LUMPUR- DAP chairman Karpal Singh is deeply touched by the apology made by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia to him on Thursday, the last day of the August house sitting.

Karpal who is Bukit Gelugor Member of Parliament said this in a statement here today.

In reciprocal, he also asked for forgiveness for the many transgression in which an apology was due from him to Pandikar Amin.

On Thursday, Pandikar Amin apologised to Karpal over his spontaneous remarks that the MP might have been suffering from pain for not raising his hand when taking oath as an MP.

The incident happened at the beginning of the 12th parliament session on April 28, 2008 and Pandikar Amin in his apology said that he only found out later that Karpal could not raise his hand.

Pandikar Amin also said the remarks was made when he was still new and had no intention to hurt anyone and he would feel bad if he did not apologise to Karpal.

— BERNAMA

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Whats ‘touching’ (being sarcastic here) is that Karpal’s physical pain is more important than the meaning of the MP’s post, and the fact that Pandikar Amin is effectively on the side of those that will not grant :

A$$ hurting? Aww poor baby. Remember we still live under apartheid and not be swayed by sweet nothings . . . Karpal is getting old and weak no? Replacement time . . . No need to ‘sayang’ whatever injuries . . . the best apology would be to END APARTHEID and a timely snap back along these lines from Karpal would have been better for the Rakyat than this maudlin sentimentality. Term limitless, nepotistic colluding MPs on BN and Pakatan sides who care more about this sort of sandiwara are the worst kind of politician. Politicians are disposable, get in there for your 1 term and 23K x 4 years of salaries (thats near 1 million btw), amend some laws and get out, we don’t need this sort of old friends among term limitless dictators and nepotists pathos to muddy the voter’s minds with regards the above 3 items.

Najib asked voters to give BN more time to execute the changes it has planned for the country. — Picture by Choo Choy May
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 ? Again calling for change in Barisan Nasional (BN), Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today voters are choosing Pakatan Rakyat (PR) because they want to send a message to the ruling coalition.

“The message is for us to change as a party,” the BN chairman said while launching the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) annual general meeting (AGM) here.

“They want BN as a party to be more fair, inclusive, and so that every citizen of Malaysia will receive equal treatment and benefits from BN.”

The prime minister’s remarks came after PPP president Datuk Seri M. Kayveas’s address, in which the latter said voters are flocking to PR because they are “worried” by perceived discrimination and prejudice under BN’s rule.

Fresh from closing Umno’s annual assembly here yesterday, Najib again called on voters to give BN more time to renew itself by supporting it in the polls.

“We’re in the process of renewal. Real changes are taking place in Malaysia.

“Real changes are taking place while the same party is in power in Malaysia,” the Umno president said.

Najib also criticised the “Ubah” (change) slogan touted by DAP and PR, comparing their call for change to the recent “Arab Spring” revolution.

“If we change, are we sure we’re getting something better?

“(The people involved in Arab Spring) are not enjoying the ‘spring weather’. They’re still in the winter of discontent,” Najib said.

The prime minister said that the revolutions in the Middle East had caused the countries involved to lose out on tourism and currency exchange, as well as suffer declines to their security.

But Najib also confessed that winning the next general election will not be easy, saying that voters’ opinions were now easily swayed by current issues.

“Before this, we can just put a songkok (to contest) and we would still win.

“Now we need to read the desires of the public, understand the wishes of the people.”

Najib then appeared to criticise grassroots leaders for failing to disseminate the aspirations of the BN administration effectively, leading to problems with perceived discrimination and prejudice.

“The problem is not at the top, the problem is on the ground.

“These people must try to understand what the government wants. If we say we must treat every citizen equally, the whole system … must do that,” Najib added to applause from the floor.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Najib then appeared to criticise grassroots leaders for failing to disseminate the aspirations of the BN administration effectively, leading to problems with perceived discrimination and prejudice. The problem is not at the top, the problem is on the ground.

“These people must try to understand what the government wants. If we say we must treat every citizen equally, the whole system … must do that,” Najib added to applause from the floor.

Politics should be about bettering civilian lives regardless of faith or ethnicity via honesty, and civilisational Islam (or any other religion), is not about crony laws and racial privileges. As mentioned elsewhere, were a screen applied to ensure meritocracy (to mask race), a translation machine (to mask language), and a voice modulator and distortion screen (to mask gender) applied at a job interview, we’d be surprised at the choices we make based on POLICY rather than race or religion.

Then the concept of NATION would be real. Right now the ‘needs basis’ is based around wrong things like religion and race or even gender ‘quotas’, which is very backward and insulting to the host race the Malays, disenfranchises the minorities, and men in general wherever quotas for women occur. Let the best people lead irrespective of faith gender or ethnicity, and let them be limited in terms AND chosen with the above tech applied so that the above racial or gender or religious cues will not affect choices. A first world ‘Meritocracy’ of logic and ability (as opposed to mob minded and pathos based DEMOCRACY of majority where the minority loses the rights to majority much like Morsi described – why can’t ALL RIGHTS be included in that sickening draft resolution that favours Islam so much?!? Egypt is NOT Islamist-Arabist, Egypt is Polytheistic AND uses Hieratic . . . Egyptians INVENTED BEER and also ate pork, Egypt was not Islamic UNTIL the Arabs militarily subjugated and conquered the Egyptians and destroyed and forbade Egyptian culture . . . ) must include :

If we say we must treat every citizen equally, the whole system BN must ensure the above 3 items with that mandate BN already has. If BN does not grant the above 3 items, there is no point giving that mandate to BN again in GE13. BN can make the choice to as PM Najib said, ‘. . . treat every citizen equally . . .’.

DEC 1 — The recently announced National Education Blueprint contains nothing new. And it shows the powers-that-be have no real intention to listen to the public or make any bold reforms to our ailing education system.

It is a repetition of the sad old story about racial prejudice, not much different from the so-called “National” Education Policy which was largely based on Umno’s Malay nationalist belief that the national language should be the sole medium of instruction.

Proponents of the Malay-medium-only policy also emphasise the Malay nationalist perspective of history that having one common language — such as in our neighbours Indonesia and Thailand — can save Malaysia from disintegration.

Racial prejudice and political demagoguery as the basis for our nation’s education agenda of true unity will not get us far. Let me prove how discriminatory is our education system and the false impressions that it projects.

How my friend succeeded in the US

I had a taste of victory for what it means to have “equal opportunities” in education about 30 years ago when I argued for admission, on behalf of a schoolmate, into an American university which has produced some Nobel laureates.

My friend was originally from Taiwan but studied in a Chinese independent secondary school in Malaysia. She did not sit for the SPM or UEC. To my surprise, the admission officer of the American university requested for UEC results in lieu of SPM qualifications.

She did not sit the UEC because the exam was still new at that time. After a long discussion, the admission officer agreed with my proposal that she be admitted conditionally on producing evidence of completing 12 years of primary and secondary education — a standard which almost all American universities and colleges go by.

She was then admitted “under probation” for one semester, meaning she would be considered a regular student after the period of study with a GPA of 2.0 and above (an average of C and above). She graduated eventually without any impediment.

Her experience goes to show how democratic, liberal and flexible the American education system is. This is one of the key factors that allow the United States to become the most technologically advanced country, and one to which many talents from other parts of the world choose to emigrate.

The value of the UEC

In the 1970s, nobody in Malaysia took the UEC exams seriously except for the powers-that-be which attempted to ban it on account that the exam was (perceived to be) “anti-national”.

Nonetheless besides Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore where the UEC was recognised, many American universities and colleges had already begun accepting it as a gateway for college admission. As far back as exactly 30 years ago, one of my classmates was admitted to the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology based on her UEC results and Chinese independent school coursework assessments.

Would our public universities and UiTM open its admission policies and welcome UEC holders by integrating them into the mainstream higher education institutes rather than discriminating them? Some top American universities even admit Chinese independent secondary school students based on school results and class ranking without referring to standardised examinations such as SPM, UEC, GCE, SAT and the like.

Yet after 30 long years, our own Malaysian government still despises the UEC as “anti-national”. In fact, except for respective language subjects, all UEC subjects are offered in three languages, in other words, one can opt to have his maths, science or other papers tested in English, Malay or Chinese.

Chinese independent school graduates are barred from using their UEC results as a means of admission to local public universities and teacher training colleges. This discrimination is deemed necessary to maintain Umno’s self-righteous “National Education Policy” for the promotion of “interracial unity”.

How can political demagoguery such as Umno’s ever help in promoting national unity and interracial integration? One could argue that the party is actually more interested in maintaining its tight grip on power by continuing to mislead the country that vernacular schools somehow pose a hidden threat.

STPM and matriculation — apple and orange?

The powers-that-be have since declared that racial quotas are no longer applied in local public universities. Instead, they claim a “merit-based” admission system has been put in place.

However, at the same time, university admission standards are “diversified” into two separate entry points — STPM and matriculation.

After years of protests by the non-Malays, only 10 per cent of matriculation programmes has been opened up to the non-Bumiputeras, and even this percentage is described by the Malay nationalists as a “sell-out” of Malay rights.

Non-Malays are supposed to be grateful for this small “kindness”, like once upon a time coloureds were supposed to thank their white masters for allowing them to go to schools in apartheid South Africa despite great disparities along racial lines in school facilities.

Almost all the non-Malays who managed to gain a seat in local public universities are students who sat the STPM. Many rue this blatant division of university entrance assessment — de facto along racial lines — as comparing apples and oranges.

Satu Sekolah’s inherent contradiction

The authorities contradict themselves by professing a single-language system to promote national unity through putting children under one roof but at the same time segregating them either at Form 1 or when they finish Form 5.

There is an obvious discrepancy between the teaching facilities provided to the vernacular schools which sorely lack government aid and support and the residential schools and Mara junior science colleges as well as the elite schools catering for Malays — e.g. the prestigious Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) and Tunku Kurshiah College (TKC).

Institutional racism practised in public university admission routes gives rise to an added dimension of polarisation. The racial distribution of students is further exacerbated when non-Malays, erroneously seen as well-to-do, are enrolled in private higher institutions of learning. Most people seem to forget that privately funded education, whether locally or abroad, comes at a heavy cost to their parents.

The indirect makings of apartheid

To generalise most Malays as “poor” and all non-Bumis, particularly the Chinese, as “rich” is just as good as apartheid.

The Malay ultras believe they are above being associated with the apartheid system in South Africa created with the ostensible excuse of helping the “poor”, Dutch-speaking whites of that country.

But then what should the international community make of UiTM — Malaysia’s biggest public university with campuses in every state — where almost all its students belong predominantly to a single race?

In the former apartheid of South Africa and during the 1950s in the Confederate states of the American south, physical segregation was made visible by the sign saying “No Coloured and Dogs allowed”.

In Malaysia, there are no signs to say “No Non-Bumis and Dogs allowed”. However, de facto apartheid still permeates through the fabric of the Malaysian public education system. It is de facto racial segregation in its utmost hypocritical disguise without leaving any physical evidence.

Therefore, I see no difference between those poor whites in the former Confederate states of the American south that once held demonstrations against university admission of black students and those Malay ultras that hold demonstrations barring “non-Bumiputeras” from entering local public institutions.

UiTM students did after all demonstrate against their university opening its door a crack when Selangor Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim proposed relaxing the admission just a tiny bit to the so-called “non-Bumis”.

America’s highest court ruled for equality

In Brown vs Board of Education (1954), the US Supreme Court unanimously decided that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”.

It stinks of double standards if not a glaring blind spot when vernacular schools keep getting blamed for institutional racism in Malaysia. If mother-tongue vernacular schools (open to all students) are incorrectly termed as racist, then the one-race UiTM is nothing but apartheid.

The old, presumed poverty line along the race divide is no longer valid, not when Malaysia has endured discriminative policies predicated on ethnicity since 1970, which is all of 42 years or almost half a century.

There are very few Malay intellectuals willing to tackle the truth of the matter but Dr Azly Rahman is one of them. At least he’s been honest and bold enough to speak out on the “bankrupt Umno ideology” of race supremacy in his article “Dismantle Our Apartheid Education”.

What is required is for more members of the Malay intelligentsia to question the veracity of a “moral” claim in the perpetuation of a quota system that amounts to apartheid. The only difference is that segregation, like that perpetuated by residential schools, Mara junior colleges and UiTM, is couched using terminology portraying a righteous morality.

The other difference is that Chinese schools are accessible to any non-Chinese but UiTM does not welcome the non-Malays. In some Chinese independent secondary schools, non-Chinese are given a blanket free tuition.

Are Malays courageous to re-evaluate?

The Malays are a strong majority in numbers and without doubt politically dominant. Why should Umno cling tenaciously to the view that preferential treatment based on race is the “affirmative action” that Malays still require?

Professor Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi in “Memories of Unity” vividly describes his confidence to compete in his science class and how he emerged one of the top students among his almost all Chinese classmates back in the 1970s.

I had a Malay classmate who went to the same Chinese independent school as I did. He graduated as one of the top students and went to a local public university, and he is currently a lecturer at another local public university.

It is a myth that Bumi students are unable to compete with non-Bumi students on a level playing field. This misconception is wrongly used to justify the institutional racism imposed on the public education from top to bottom.

There are tens of thousands of Malays who have made it in local and prestigious foreign universities and thrived in adverse sociocultural settings. There is no moral justification for segregating Malaysian post-secondary students into STPM/ matriculation except for satisfying Umno’s racial imperatives.

NEP and education apartheid

A few successful Malay billionaire cronies do not mitigate the failure with regard to certain protectionist areas of the NEP. This includes educational apartheid. The rejuvenation of the vernacular schools since the late 1970s when NEP went into full swing is a consequence of our race policies, and not the chief cause of racism.

The NEP was based upon the empirical generalisation that Chinese and Indian Malaysians were all well off and should be “positively discriminated” against in order to help the “poor Malays”.

It’s a different story today as the civil service has become Malay dominated and this is empirical truth. The tables have been turned as Malaysians of Chinese and Indian descent are marginalised.

The original purpose of the NEP to eradicate the identification of race with profession — Malay farmer, Chinese shopkeeper, Indian clerk — is sidetracked when the civil service has become wholly identified with the Malay race. The racial traits along professions, as reflected in the hiring practices of both the private and public sectors, have been deepened by the NEP.

When I recently requested some documents to be certified by a government department, the Malay clerk gave me a jealous one-eye wink knowing that it was for the purpose of applying to colleges in the US. The one-eye wink might perhaps have been nothing more than the coded message that all you “Chinamen” are rich and can afford to send your children overseas to be educated. This only goes to show up the failure of the NEP in correcting the racial prejudice among races in Malaysia.

How the Chinese prioritise education

The fact is that I told my children I would sell our house and live in a smaller one if we needed funds for their education. I mean education is where they would learn something new and be happy including getting away from institutional racism. We neither hope for JPA or any other government scholarships after hearing so many sad stories of racial degradation.

Selling homes and other property for the sake of children’s education among the lower and middle-class Chinese Malaysians is not a new practice. I remember my mother decided to sell off the six-acre rubber plantation left by my deceased father to put me and my sister through university.

She later worked as a babysitter to cover all our expenses studying overseas. We always thought that there might be more Malays who did not have land to sell. Nonetheless, our good reasoning has not helped many Malays to get rid of their own ingrained racial prejudice both against themselves and other races.

As I write this article, coincidentally, my 17-year-old daughter has just received news that a high-ranking American university has agreed to admit her into their Fine Arts programme based on her multiple talents, multilingual skills and ability to play the Chinese zither and flute. Some universities already made it clear, admitting her by waiving the requirement of her SPM or UEC results.

On the contrary, her talent in playing ancient Chinese musical instruments is definitely not a criterion for admission into any local public university. On the contrary, it may even work against her favour as it could be looked at as a form of Chinese chauvinism and clinging to our ancestral roots.

Deserving of places in local universities

I am not trying to boast about my daughter’s academic achievement. She is actually a B-average student but it sure makes a parent proud when one’s child deservedly gains recognition for her talents, and more importantly she will be able to further develop her talents without being labelled as a non-Bumi.

I am glad that her dedication to social work and extracurricular activities, including organising a joint concert of Chinese orchestra and western bands, won her recognition from some highly ranked American universities.

One of her recent achievements is receiving a gold medal in an international Chinese essay-writing contest in Taiwan. Instead of chucking her unique credential aside, an American university admission director gave great words of encouragement, such as “your family must be very proud of you (for the gold medal received) …We would like you to be with us, and I hope you will continue to contribute to the international programme here if you decide to join us”.

I was surprised that she was offered admission and given a partial academic scholarship before we even sent out applications to other American colleges and local private universities.

Some universities are amazed that our students can master two or three languages. They usually give positive encouragement like: “Considering English is your third language, your English is really good.” No parents will send their kid to a college where he or she faces the possibility of being humiliated and degraded on account of race, creed and “non-native status” when my daughter is actually a native-born fourth-generation Malaysian.

As a matter of fact, most UEC holders have a greater proficiency in Bahasa Malaysia, which is their second language, compared to English, which is their third language. If the UEC holders can do well in universities overseas that teach in English, why can’t they be given the same opportunities by our local public universities?

It might be true that their Bahasa Malaysia may not be as good compared with SPM/STPM holders just as their English may not be as good as the Americans, British or Australians when they enrol in American, Australian or British universities. However if they are given the opportunity to enrol in local public universities, they will be able to polish their BM just like how when given the opportunity to study abroad they are able to polish their English.

More importantly, such openness is needed in order to “converge” the vernacular school alumni into the local higher education institutions and complete an education integration process than forcibly “diverge” them to local private institutions and overseas colleges.

We have to be fair and realistic in assessing our students’ language ability based on what is the best they can do in their learning environment. In fact, cultural immersion is the best method to improve Malay language or any other second language proficiency instead of educational segregation like what has been practiced here.

Some 30 years ago, it was rare to encounter Americans learning an Asian language. Today there are American reporters who insist on interviewing me in perfect Mandarin or Bahasa Indonesia. It is a fast-changing world out there but it seems our Umno elites — with the exception of Najib Razak whose son is a fluent Mandarin speaker — are lagging behind time.

The very first step for the Malay ultras to take in the right direction is to cease making a scapegoat out of Chinese and Tamil primary schools. It is an unfounded charge that little children are responsible for racism and racial disunity in Malaysia.

It is, on the other hand, our fear to embrace cultural diversity and true interracial integration that has left us lagging behind many other countries. It is time for the Malay ultras to open their eyes and correct their ingrained prejudice that has worked against their own competitiveness. — CPI Asia

* This article was originally published by CPI Asia.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

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Is interracial integration more possible under convergence or divergence? — Boo Cheng Hau

How about stopping with the inculpation of hegelian dialectic Orwell state b.s. and understanding that EITHER / OR in this issue should be replaced with :

;and all groups will fall into the new line of EQUALITY. Without equality, there will be no integration much less INTERRACIAL integration.

. . . The very first step for the Malay ultras to take in the right direction is to cease making a scapegoat out of Chinese and Tamil primary schools. It is an unfounded charge that little children are responsible for racism and racial disunity in Malaysia. . . .

That is NOT a first step, that is LIP SERVICE because not scapegoating does not mean policy which scapegoats minority changes, a REAL furst step is granting the above 3 items and if the scapegoating continues at that point the policy of equality would easily overtake scapegoating which will just be bad form that Malaysians will not even care about that will mark the politican as a bad citizen instead. ctual policy is more important than what politicnas say to occupy the people. Looks like BN’s propagandists have exposed BN’s intentions – never to grant the above 3 items. If 3rd force doesn’t make GE13 in time, 3rd force had better be prepared for GE14 where the threat of NEPOTISM and LIMITLESS TERMS, and STATE COLLUSION in GLC and crony contractors in Pakatan Rakyat will be the greatest threat EVEN as the above 3 items are not even granted by Pakatan’s discussions so far. End the APARTHEID of BUMIPUTRA and give freedom of religion to the Malays. Going apostate in Islam IS NOT PUNISHABLE and should not mean Bumi Privileges will be withdrawn from the Malays even as these same rights should be the rights of ALL Malaysians regardless of faith or ethnicity but rather economic status ONLY. Ask the Al-Azhar Islamic University if apostasy was punishable in the prophet’s time or liable for ‘Islamic Re-education’ to keep followers, Malaysian Syariah laws on apostasy are all ILLEGAL in Islamic jurisprudence!

PETALING JAYA – Former inspector-general of police (IGP) Tan Sri Musa Hassan (pix) has called on the police and Home Ministry to publicly disclose all crime statistics so as to not confuse people about the actual crime situation in the country.

“The police should disclose all statistics as the people would like to know why there are street crimes around when the NKRA (National Key Results Area) showed that the crime is dropping.

“We do not say that they (government) are manipulating the statistics but the people might be confused if they don’t reveal all the reports,” he told a press conference here today.

Expressing his backing for the Malaysian Crime Watch Group (MyWatch), a non-governmental organisation which aims to educate and increase awareness on the preparation and prevention of crime, he said a public awareness campaign is important in helping the government and police combat crime at the grassroots level.

Musa claimed that the police now not only heed the IGP but also have to report to government servants outside the force.

He said the police should remain apolitical and not let any political influences seep into the force.

“I’m not hitting at the government. Nobody called me personally (to discuss) and there’s nothing on the paper (reporting change). I want to see police force improved. I don’t want things to be politicised because the police force needs to be improved for the sake of the people,” he said.

“If you want proof, you have to read it in the (news)papers, there are enough proof (of government interference). Now even the police are confused when the chief secretary of the KDN (Home Ministry) directs the police and the police complain to me.

“Perception comes from a real person’s action. So it (interference) is real,” he added.

-thesundaily

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Arrest all corrupt politicians (guess who was the MOST CORRUPT . . . ) in some Ops not amounting to a police coup. The Dewan should be emptied by the next session and most of the corrupted MPs and Assemblymen should yield a nice fat purse for Malaysia with those frozen accounts’ monies. What say you independent among judiciary and good cops? The international community and goodly among our top institutions and citizens would applaud. Perhaps a stint as interim PM as well since most of DAP are too nepotistic and Mubarak-like to qualify for the Pm’s post? Heck, pull together a few generals and consult Susilo (not for a ‘ganyang’ of Malaysia but a precise ‘ganyng’ of Malaysia’s WORST citizens . . . most Malaysians wouldn’t miss corrupted politicians and racists anyway.

KUALA LUMPUR- “Rosmah Mansor”, a book which chronicles the life of the prime minister’s wife, was launched today by the Sultan of Pahang Sultan Ahmad Shah.

Yayasan Amanah Perdana Malaysia chairman Shamsulbahrin Ludin, the book’s publisher, said the new biography will allow readers a well-rounded glimpse into Rosmah’s life from her childhood to the present.

“Some of the facts presented in this book have never been told to anyone before.”

Its highlights, he said, include her marriage to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak – in particular, the challenges she faced first as the wife of a cabinet minister, deputy prime minister and now the country’s leader.

Written in an informal and relaxed tone, the book features stories from her school days at Tunku Kursiah College, Negeri Sembilan, and includes interviews with her closest friends.

“Many would want to know what life was like when she was a child, in primary and secondary schools.

“In addition to her life in campus and in the workforce, her life at the TKC was filled with interesting events which will certainly draw special attention,” Shamsulbahrin said.

The book also includes a special chapter in which Rosmah addresses the public rumours surrounding her life, whether regarding her family or her involvement in current events.

“Most importantly, we expect this book to provide answers in response to slanderous comments leveled at (Rosmah).

“In other words, it is a small effort by us to show her best attribute, that is her humility, through this book,” Shamsulbahrin said.

The 164-page biography also details her involvement in community work, especially her efforts to develop the Permata Negara programme, her engagement with non-government organisations as well as her participation in Bakti and in various international programmes.

It also showcases a collection of old and recent photographs.

The book’s soft launch was held as part of Rosmah’s birthday celebration, which included performances by singer Misha Omar and students from the Permata Seni programme.

Present at the ceremony were the Royal Consort of Pahang Sultanah Hajjah Kalsom, Najib and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Ahmad Maslan.

-NST.COM

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Names which turn out especially bad in another language might be the cause of some of the antipathy between races. Won’t mention which but those who know English and Hokkien dialect should easily figure which one . . .

ARTICLE 11

HOW TO BE NEUTRAL? EC officers have right to join political parties – chief – Monday, 10 December 2012 17:11

KUALA LUMPUR— Election Commission (EC) officers are within their democratic right to join political parties but they must not be partisan in carrying out their duties, says its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof.

The EC chairman disclosed this when responding to accusations by PAS that a senior EC officer in Sabah was holding a key post in the Kinabatangan Umno Youth chapter. The EC’s impartiality has been continuously questioned by the opposition and activists over the past years.

“There is nothing wring for any EC officer to join political parties. It doesn’t matter if they are in PAS, PKR or Umno.

“It is their democratic right,” he told The Malaysian Insider when contacted over the issue.

But Abdul Aziz said that EC officials should not side with any parties or abuse their powers when carrying out their duties.

He also stressed that the EC welcomed reports from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) if the commission officials abused their powers, saying the opposition parties should lodge complaints and provide proof of wrongdoing.

“If there is proof to show the officer is in the wrong, please submit the proof. If possible, give the name, position and pictures.

“We will investigate without favour no matter who the officer is,” Abdul Aziz said.

The former top civil servant agreed that EC officials who are in political parties should not mix their duties with political ideology, saying it went against the work ethics of those in government service.

The EC chairman pointed out there were no regulations or laws that prevent government officials from joining political parties, except that those active in politics must apply for permission from the Public Service Department (PSD).

Sabah PAS Youth chief Lahirul Latigu had asked the EC to explain how its officials can hold posts in political parties, saying the silence would affect the commission’s credibility to ensure the democratic process is carried out in the country.

“If the EC still chooses to keep silent on this issue, PAS Youth will not hesitate to expose details about the officer who is in politics,” he had said.

Reports of EC officers holding posts in Umno have surfaced over the years, including allegations that Abdul Aziz and his deputy, Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar, are members of the ruling party.

Following such reports against the top two EC officials last May, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz denied that Abdul Aziz was an Umno member as alleged by PKR secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

He disclosed that Abdul Aziz had registered as an Umno member more than 30 years ago in the Ampang Umno division but had since left the party.

“The EC chairman has already clarified that he isn’t an Umno member. He has also made sure about it,” Nazri had said.

-The Malaysian Insider

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Simple. Make laws that disallow EC officers from joining political parties.

The EC postholders and salaries jobs must ALL be people with no political party memberships, no business links to any politicians or even with businesses WITH links to politicians (the more distant the better and should be the criteria for EC posts). We can’t have family blocs like in the Pakatan family nepotism party. This way VESTED INTEREST can be avoided. So anyone who fulfil the above criteria ready to offer themselves for 1 term jobs? This will ensure Malaysia is a clean country. The ROS (Registry of Socities), MACC (Acnti-Corruption Agency), PAC (Public Accounts Committee) and Bar Council btw, should also be staffed in a similar manner.

We have three kids and have been married for five years, so we’re well out of the honeymoon period.

We’re both in our mid-30s and have been together since we were teenagers.

I really thought as men got older their sex drive declined, but it’s the opposite with my hubby!

Basically, if he had his way we’d be at it three times a day, every day.

I thought he might be insecure so I talked to him about it, but it turns out he just loves sex!

I love him to pieces, but I can’t keep up!

I’ve tried telling him all this, but the words “No, love, not tonight” just don’t register with him.

Help me!

Coleen says..

First the good news: it’s better to work out a compromise from this position than be in the situation where you’re having no sex.

It’s really fantastic that he still desires you so much after all those years together – for a lot of couples it’d be the other way round – but it’s only great if it’s what you both want.

Right now you’re feeling under pressure, but it’s a delicate situation and you don’t want to put him off ­altogether or embarrass him.

Tell him how much you love him and fancy him, but that physically you cannot have sex that often and you don’t want to either.

The most successful relationships are the ones where both parties can compromise and that’s what he’s going to have to do now. And you’ll have to do the same.

But don’t let it become a massive issue that affects your otherwise great relationship.

-mirror.co.uk

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A second wife should do the trick. that is why polygamy exists. This article hosts a gay NLP btw – a woman does not need to ‘keep it up’, the writer if female, has penis envy or wants to be a man, otherwise is subversive of men hoping men become gay. Reading too many NLPs of this sort results in gayness, not that gayness per se is bad, but CONTRIVED gayness resulting ftom, NLPs IS bad . . . Malaysian Chronicle should not abuse their readers like this.

ARTICLE 13

BE WARNED DR M & POLITICIANS LIKE SHAHRIZAT: The next May 13 will be very different from 1969 – by Victor Lim – Monday, 10 December 2012 12:08

YES. I couldn’t agree more with Koon Yew Yin (see story reproduced below), a respected Chinese community senior citizen.

I wish to add two very pertinent points which Mr Koon and I overlooked.

Point No.1: The majority of Malays, I believe some 90% of them, don’t pay taxes to the federal government.

They pay what is known as zakat (tithes), a form of Islamic tax.

This means Malaysia has been developed for the past 55 years with contributions from the non-Malays or non-Muslims and the corporate sector.

Therefore, if the business climate is ruined by the super corrupt, evil and racist Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) because it wants to remain in power at all costs, including the propagation of the May 13 violence and bloodshed, who will suffer more? Who is the majority race in Malaysia?

The cousins … the real danger Malaysians’ face

Point No.2: However, should violence really break out after BN-Umno loses the next general election, it will not be the same May 13, 1969.

In 1969, the majority of Malays were really living in abject poverty. They were envious of others who were better off economically.

Today, it is an entirely different scenario. That was the 20th century. We are now in the 21st century.

The Malays today are more informed and are therefore able to make wiser judgments politically.

Unlike 1969, the issues today are not about race. Only BN-Umno, for reasons only known to them, stubbornly refuses to change with the times to remain relevant with the rakyat (people).

Politically Bankrupt

All BN-Umno can focus on is its divide-and-rule archaic political strategy to remain in power at all costs.

BN-Umno uses money and its blind-loyalty supporters to stir emotions and violence at Opposition ceramah (political rallies) or to disrupt peaceful public protests.

BN is just unable to think out of the box and is obviously unable to react rationally after the March 8, 2008 political tsunami shock which saw BN losing its traditional two-thirds majority in Parliament and five states.

Blinded by corruption

Over the past four years, as the BN continued to try to impose their brute political might and power on the people with the aim of intimidating the rakyat into submission and subservience, the peoples’ political restlessness grew enormously.

Now, at its own doing, the BN is living in fear of losing its mandate to govern after the 13th General Election. The dissolution of the 222-seat Parliament is automatic on April 28, 2013.

BN has only itself to blame for failing to use the four years to implement reforms that would endear the rakyat and win back their hearts and minds after March 2008.

It refuses to see the rakyat’s demands for justice and clean socio-economic development policies – not continuing with its culture of enriching its families and cronies.

They are the poorest in Malaysia, so the BN-Umno federal government needs to give all the multi-billion ringgit projects to them.

Where has our natural wealth GONE?

It refuses to discard its race and religious political cards for more practical and reforming policies to fast track the progress and prosperity of Malaysians and Malaysia.

Yes! The people are asking: “Where have all the trillions of ringgit in natural resources, including oil and gas, gone?”

Is it also too much to ask the BN government to account for it’s more than RM800 billion federal debt? This, the BN has remained mum.

No wonder, the Opposition is gaining ground

The Opposition PR’s nationwide political rallies are seeing bigger and bigger crowds by the day and the audience comprises all races.

They break into rounds and rounds of thundering applause whenever Parliamentary Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim touches on issues related to the need to do away with non-race based policies in governance to stimulate and fast track Malaysia’s healthy socio-economic growth.

They break into rounds and rounds of applause whenever Anwar explains and proposes people-centric fiscal measures aimed at reducing the financial burden of the people in a fast rising cost of living environment.

Anwar also stresses on the need to provide a higher standard of education for Malaysians, not race, as the impetus for economic and technological excellence. This, he has proposed free education for all, from primary level to tertiary education.

If BN-Umno really resorts to the use of violence when it loses the next general election, it will be the minority Umno Malays fighting with the PKR-PAS Malays backed by the Chinese and Indian communities.

My dear fellow rakyat, it will be very much unlike May 13, 1969.

Friday, 07 December 2012 23:58

If there is another May 13 riot, the MALAYS WILL BE THE BIGGEST LOSERS

Written by Koon Yew Yin

If there is another May 13 riot, the MALAYS WILL BE THE BIGGEST LOSERS

As the countdown to the general election begins in earnest, we are getting more and more calls from desperate and irresponsible politicians drawing attention to the possibility of a repeat of the infamous May 13 violence if the election results should go against the expectations of various political parties and interests.

The fact that these calls are directed towards the Bumiputera component of our population, are expressed in the national language, and are widely carried in the Malay mass media and Internet world makes me suspicious of the intentions of these politicians who claim that they are simply doing Malaysians a favour by warning of the backlash should the election outcome not bring about a continuation of the present power structure.

To my mind, these politicians are not only applying crude pressure on the Malay electorate to vote for them but they are also blatantly revealing their trump card – that violence, chaos and political instability will automatically erupt in the event that the opposition parties win the elections.

This blackmailing of our electorate as well as incitement of disruptive and hooligan elements in our society is totally unacceptable. Various academicians and politicians from the opposition have spoken up against such fear mongering in the recent past. However, not enough has been done by members of the business community and other professional organizations to speak out against these warnings and threats although they will be the main losers should another May 13 episode take place.

Much more needs to be done by key stakeholders to condemn the individuals and organizations making the threats as the risk of these threats becoming self-fulfilling prophesies increases by the day.

Shahrizat’s not-so-veiled threat

The latest invocation of May 13 took place at the Umno general assembly held recently. In that meeting, the Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil warned that the May 13 tragedy might be repeated should Umno became weak and not be able to overcome its challenges. That this warning was not made obliquely but was served up as part of her opening speech text testifies to the way in which this kind of desperado thinking has become the mainstream in certain political circles.

What is more worrying is that both Najib Razak and Muhyiddin Yassin as Umno president and deputy president, and more importantly as the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, failed to repudiate or rebuke Sharizat for fear mongering. Instead the Deputy Prime Minister attempted to defend the speech by explaining that chaos will be inevitable under Pakatan Rakyat rule.

Other Umno leaders, notably its vice-president Hishamuddin Hussein have even gone so far as to dismiss the attention brought by Shahrizat’s May 13 statement as a case of “spinning” and to put the blame on a pro-opposition media and other opposition elements.

“Shahrizat has already told me that this will be another matter that will be used for spinning by certain quarters, just because it coincides with the general assembly”, the country’s minister in charge of internal security is reported to have said in his dismissal of public concern when questioned about it.

Even if it is a case of over-reaction by the media and a fearful public, it is hoped that Shahrizat and her colleagues will not play with fire or pander to the psyche of insecurity found in Umno party members by constantly harping on the possible recurrence of 13 May and even worst, by condoning or justifying violent and catastrophic racial riots as they appear to be doing in the run-up to the elections.

Aftershocks of electoral violence

Should there be bloodshed and violence arising from the next elections, it will not be non-Malays primarily who will lose out or be hurt by the collapse of the share market and the larger economy as we see a rush to exit the country by local and foreign businesses and investors. It will be all Malaysians especially those who are now enjoying the good life.

Malays must bear in mind that while in 1969 they may have had less to lose, today the situation is completely different. There is Malay control of a major part of the commanding heights of our economy such as the banks, manufacturing, hi-tech industry, etc. and the largest listed companies. These gains which have given birth to the creation of a sizeable Malay middle and upper class will be put at great risk should there be another May 13. They may even disappear as the economic aftershocks and loss of economic confidence spiral out of control.

Another May 13 is unthinkable and unforgivable except to those who are so blinded by ambition and their lust for power that they need to keep reminding themselves and their supporters of that horrific possibility. However, should it happen, unlike in the first May 13 incident, it will be clear as to who are the instigators.

Conclusion:

I trust this article will encourage more stakeholders – bankers, business leaders, academicians and leaders of all political parties – to speak out and condemn those who are using the threat of another May 13 if there is a change of government. The Malays must remember that even if Pakatan Rakyat wins control of the government, there will be more Malay Members of Parliament than from any other races.

The Malays will be the biggest losers if there is another May 13 riot. – cpi

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

All Malaysians likely are friends with the real enemies being MPs and Assemblymen on either BN or Pakatan’s side (especially the extreme wealth types, term limitless, or nepotistic) are the ones who pit Malaysians against Malaysian, then pretend to solve problems while making laws worse and fines higher, cost of living higher, but raising their own 23K MP salaries, asking for 750K funerals, having crony businesses and giving crony licences (like the recent Syed Mokhtar’s Puncak Semangat granted by MCMC twice the bandwidth spectrum above all other contractors – vestedinterest and anti-trust or anti-monopoly laws any Judges? No? All legal BEAGLES, not a single legal NGO made a peep . . . ). Guess who instigated the riots? Only those minority citizens directly involved should be subjected to Bumiputra Apartheid. So who should be punished for instigating riots? (hint : the extreme wealth, term limitless, or nepotistic . . . collecting 1 million of YOUR tax monies every 4 year term . . . ) . . . Vote 3rd Force!

Ex-IGP speaks out against transfers, saying that crime syndicates are now operating freely with ‘blessings from the top’.

Good, honest, hardworking police officers are being transferred from their divisions for doing their work with integrity, claimed former Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan.

Musa suggested that these moves are now allowing more and more criminal syndicates to operate freely with “blessings from somebody on top” and also involved politicians at the highest levels.

Musa gave several examples of such transfers, and spoke out against the nationwide enbloc transfer of D7 officers in early 2011.

“After I left, there was an enbloc transfer of D7 officers, right? Not everybody is bad in the D7, why must you change the whole team?” he asked.

On rumours that the transfers were part of a exercise to facilitate syndicates changing hands, Musa said that was not the case, but said it was “because these officers are taking action, because they know a lot of things.”

“…. they were afraid that they couldn’t direct these people from D7,” he said, without explaining who “they” were.

Musa admitted that many of these people given transfers were those he had promoted at one point, but denied that they were part of his ‘camp’.

“I promoted people because of their capabilities and have done a good job…they were transferred out and not given any ranks.

“[During the D7 redeployment], the whole country, all the IPK contingents headquarters, some were transferred to the field force.”

“See… they were all good officers, when they were under me they arrested quite a number from the syndicates, but now there are no arrests anymore.

Musa said D7 is the division tasked with cracking down on vice, gambling, loansharks, prostitution and also to investigate syndicated crime.

“So they have all the intelligence about them, especially the bosses. These are the ones [D7 officers] who actually go after the [crime syndicate] top [guns].

‘Politicians involved in transfers’

FMT: Why such transfers under [current IGP] Ismail Omar’s time?

Musa: To make it easier for them to operate-lah, because when I was the IGP, most of them went away, they left the country.

When you say “they” you are referring to?

Musa: The syndicate bosses.

So are you then saying the current IGP is openly allowing syndicates to operate?

The home minister had to interfere to stop the then IGP Musa Hassan from promoting and transferring his men who would continue working with criminal elements, claims Raja Petra.

(FMT) – Former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan, before his retirement, had allegedly promoted and transferred the “right” police officers who will continue to work hand-in-hand with the triads, claimed popular blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin today.

However, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein had interfered in this exercise, and this has caused a lot of problems for the Chinese underworld and crime syndicates.

“And that is why Musa recently gave his interviews – alleging interference by the politicians in the running of the police force. It is true that the minister blocked Musa’s every move,” said Raja Petra in his latest blog posting in Malaysia Today.

Raja Petra said that Hishammuddin had decided to act as he feared that a continuation of Musa’s influence in the police force would have had a backlash on Umno in the coming general election.

“They know that the voters are unhappy with the police force and that may cost Umno a lot of votes.

“Hence if the minister does not rein in the police, then there is a danger that Umno could lose a sizeable number of votes,” said Raja Petra.

In recent weeks, Musa had claimed that during his tenure as the IGP from 2006 to 2010, there had been political interference and inflitration of criminal elements in the police force.

He said that he had raised these issues through the “proper channels” to the prime minister and home minister, but to no effect.

He had also lashed out at his successor Ismail Omar, claiming that he was a weak police chief.

Musa’s detractors, however, had responded by saying that it was Musa who had allowed the triads to take control of the police force, of his alleged corrupt practices, and of his underhand tactics to “fix people up”, including his former boss Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) chief Ramli Yusuff.

Adding to the list of Musa’s detractors, Raja Petra claimed that the former top cop has many grievances against the government, the present IGP Ismail and Hishammuddin.

Musa’s role in Bersih violence?

Raja Petra said Musa’s bitternes was due to the government’s rejection of his request for a further extension as the police chief.

“He then asked to be made the Malaysian High Commissioner to Brunei and that too was rejected. Instead, he was given just a teaching job, which, to him, is a great insult when other retired IGPs before him were given ‘good’ posts,” he said.

The blogger also claimed that many suspected Musa’s role in the manner police acted violently against Bersih 3.0 rally-goers on April 28 this year.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Oh dear RPK is a racist! Or should I say fundamentalist? Crime cyndicates? They’d all rather have legal RLDs, Gambling Outlets (non-4D but all regular casino types) and OPZs which the idiot BN government simply refused out of racism and hatred for non-Muslims. RPK, I am disappointed. The above activities are CRIMINALISED there are no criminals among the Chinese community, the entertainment industry was driven underground then labelled as ‘criminal’ or underworld. Legalise and see how many ‘criminals’ there are. The Chinese by nature are always law abiding but will try to screw those who prevent them from having fun. These Human Rights abuses have been affliting the Chinese community long enough in Malaysia and probably every other non-Muslim tin the Middle East as well. How dishonest and selfish can a race or faith get?

The ex-IGP claims that former MACC advisor Robert Phang was involved in a communication devices deal for the police which did not meet specifications.

Teoh El Sen, FMT

Several senior policemen were transferred out of the Bukit Aman Logistics Department (Communications Division) and put in “cold storage” for refusing to approve a technically unsound project involving walkie talkies worth almost RM1 billion.

It is learnt that the project was mooted towards the end of 2008 and involved the replacement of more than 30,000 new walkie-talkies for beat policemen, stations and vehicles nationwide, including Sabah and Sarawak.

However, problems arose a year or two after the project, which was a direct negotiation contract, took off as the implementation of the devices were allegedly not according to specifications.

One of the problems was the apparent lack of coverage or “black spots” in certain areas around the country such as in certain buildings, and in one case very little coverage along the East-West highway despite being promised otherwise.

The other issues, which “deviated from the agreed specificaitons”, include a recording system which sometimes records when nobody speaks and vice versa; and also incidents where the walkie talkie transmits by itself.

However, despite the flaws, sources said that those within the Home Ministry and top ranking policemen were constantly pressuring a team of technical experts to sign the acceptance of the equipment before the issues were smoothed out.

“[Former inspector-general of police] Musa Hassan did not agree to a project that was not done properly but they used KDN [Home Ministry] to force the technical team to do whatever the company wanted. They were under tremendous pressure,” said a source with direct knowledge of the deal.

“By mid 2010, when the first phase was being put out in the Klang Valley, we already noticed that all these problems were surfacing, but they were swept under the carpet.

“They realised that if they signed the project, we will go to jail. So better transfer,” added the source.

Investigate Ismail

Speaking to FMT on this, Musa said when he was still IGP, he kept a close watch on the project to ensure that the equipment was what the police needed. However, he claimed, other parties’ interests crept in after he left.

Musa said that prominent businessman and former MACC advisor Robert Phang was a consultant for the project and acted as a go-between the police and the provider, a multinational telecommunications company.

“Because he was close with the police. So at that time, I believe that there were some government officers in the ministry who was involved in the company.

“Since it was approved by the government, I had to carry it out. But I made sure that the technical team that overseeing the project does not compromise to ensure that it is up to specifications and to ensure that this communication can be used throughout Malaysia without any hiccups.

“So after I left… I was not quite happy because it was still not up to specifications. I was informed that it would not work well and that is why the technical team refused to sign the commission so that money can be paid,” he told FMT.

However, Musa alleged that even Phang threatened the team. “The team received a call from him saying that if you don’t sign it, you will be transferred out.”

True enough, he added, at least three officers ranked DSP, Supt and SAC were then given letters of transfers out of the department.

“So the team refused to sign, and they were called by the IGP. The present IGP [Ismail Omar] asked them to commission it… because they need the government to pay the money… I don’t know how many million. So they got transferred and now it actually went through.

“Officers who have the capability and technical expertise in communication are being put in cold storage by this businessman. That’s how good his connections are. He is very close to the IGP now… very friendly with the home minister,” said Musa.

Musa said that he wanted the authorities to investigate Ismail for possibly abusing his powers and Phang for allegedly abetting the former.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Robert Phang had neglected to address Bumiputra Apartheid, in this case at least from this, I believe Musa’s accusation of duplicity and complicity on Robert Phang’s part. Meanwhile, perhaps Musa had not thought in terms of BEING CHINESE when accusing the so-called syndicates of being ‘criminals’ in the above response. Where synthetics are involved, I am on Musa’s side as well, but everything else labelled criminal by Musa should be dropped as mere entertainment and oppression of Chinese by jealous Muslims who are not supposed to have fun.

The current IGP’s links in the RLD, OPZ or Gambling outlet is Human Rights CORRECT so long as no Muslims are allowed to use the same, and Malaysia’s laws are in fact oppressive and inapplicable. MCA, Gerakan and DAP of course are criminal minded enough to not address these problems while hiding behind a veneer of ‘morality’ but know this, a MAN who cannot tell the difference between Voltarian Freedoms and Fundamentalism expressed Political Expedience are but mere CHILDREN living moralistic fantasies in the childhood. Those who are moral evidently do not under stand civil society and the ETHICS that allow for civilisation by allowing so-called ‘criminal activities’ which are simply entertainments tarred with demogogues and fundamentalists, orwellian minded politicians intent on control by suppression of entertainment.

Adults and free citizens (think Amsterdam’s OPZs, adult zones (RLDs) and various ‘Gambling Districts worldwide, Playboy Clubs, Hustler Clubs, Penthouse Clubs or just the Zona de Tolerancia) who’s faith permits enjoy RLDs, OPZs gambling and what not – NO PERSON OR GROUP IN THE WORLD has the right to prevent another group from having access or to set up such entertainments, though ‘pushing fun’ on the non-consenting is another thing.

The above response describes the sick immatured/oppression-intended pathos of the ethos reliant/blinded Chinese and Indians who are non-‘criminal’, and I am sure the TRULY EDUCATED can relate to and will stand by what this response means. Citizens are not chattel of the state or their faiths or their retarded neighbours, and the CIVILIAN LAWS *MUST* reflect the reality of FREEDOM, Human Rights and Democracy, MUST protect such rights, Muslims or no Muslims, fundos or no fundos of whatever faith or cultlike sect.

And then the above, which ALL politicians have neglected to implement so they can profit off strife and oppression of the libido or the saporific effects of Organic psychedelics! Freud should take up this cause even from beyond the grave . . .

We are merely kidding ourselves if we think the rules by PAS only apply to Muslims.

THERE they go again. The PAS-­controlled Kelantan state government, which has yet to resolve the controversy over the gender segregation ruling on hair salons run by non-Muslims, has now found itself in another explosive issue.

Four non-Muslims – two men on a plane-spotting outing and a couple in a park – have been issued with summonses for khalwat.

The summonses were for “indecent behaviour” but the four have denied any wrongdoing, insisting that the municipal council enforcement officers were “merely abusing their position”.

The first case involved two men in their 30s who were in a car parked beside the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport. They claimed they were watching planes land in the night when they were issued with the summonses by these Taliban-style officers.

This writer can only deduce that Kota Baru must be so boring – the result of a ban on entertainment outlets – that the two young men have to watch planes landing at the airport for entertainment. How these officers can consider their action an offence is mind-boggling.

But we know that the PAS politicians have a great sense of imagination and can conjure up fantasies out of seemingly ordinary situations. They think that getting a haircut from a person of the opposite sex can lead to moral decay and watching concerts can lead to hedonism or excessive pleasure, whatever that means.

Malaysians know that these cranky politician-theologians also frown upon the mixed company of males and females, but two non-Muslim men being punished for being in a car together, that’s a new one. Are they telling us now that two men together can lead to immoral activities or that watching planes at the airport can be sexually arousing? Even if they had committed a “gay act”, does the council have any jurisdiction over non-Muslims?

The other case involved a 17-year-old boy and a girl aged 15. They were together at the Tengku Anis Park in the town centre, in broad daylight, when they were arrested. They were approached by the enforcement officers and issued summonses on the spot for purported indecent behaviour.

Nothing seems to be safe any more for non-Muslims in Kota Baru. You get fined for having a hair cut by a hairstylist of a different sex, you get fined for being in love and sharing private moments in a park in broad daylight, and you also get summoned for being in a wrong queue in a supermarket check-out.

Before anyone accuses this writer of filing another PAS-bashing piece, it is important to point out that the protest over the latest controversies was started by the National PAS Supporters Congress president Hu Pang Chaw, who is known for his apologist stand for the Islamist party.

Interestingly enough, Hu has also revealed that the male victims had complained to him that the officers had even sought RM500 “to settle the matter”, which means that these holier-than-thou officers were open to corruption.

Hu added that “as far as I know, the council has no right to issue summonses to non-Muslims for close contact with their girlfriends in the dark or out in the open”. But Hu shouldn’t plead ignorance now because the PAS rules have always infringed upon non-Muslims. This is not the first time and it won’t be the last.

Don’t blame PAS either because they have consistently told Malaysians that their objective is to turn Malaysia into an Islamic State. Barisan Nasional tells us that we are already an Islamic State, but they still keep intact the secular laws and the British-style courts.

But for political expediency, and for selfish political ambitions, there is now a deafening silence from allies of PAS. The only exception seems to be DAP chairman Karpal Singh, who has also consistently spoken up against the hudud laws pushed by PAS. However, his party comrades have decided to keep silent and, worse, are encouraging us to elect more PAS leaders into Parliament and the state assemblies.

It is also pertinent to note that during The Star’s interview with the Sultan of Selangor, the Tuanku had revealed that there were politicians who tried to prevent the opening of cinemas in shopping malls in Shah Alam! This is in Selangor and not even in Kelantan. We can also assume that this must be the work of PAS elected representatives.

We know for a fact that the PAS state assemblyman for Bangi, Dr Shafie Abu Bakar, has prevented a cinema from being set up by a non-Muslim, and that the Kuala Selangor PAS wants to stop unmarried couples from watching movies in a cinema there.

We are merely kidding ourselves if we think the rules by PAS do not affect non-Muslims. Despite the promised intervention by PAS’ top leaders over the hair salon ruling, nothing has changed until today.

In an interview with The Malay Mail on Friday, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang was quoted as saying “even Chinese wives don’t agree with (unisex) salons”.

He seems out of touch with reality, or pretending to be.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

So sue the government or run for politics to get political immunity to make known to the world what is happening here in Malaysia. Have the respect and ethos, the cash to fund proxy candidates? Don’t talk here from behind the media.

Najib launched the club at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) via tele-conferencing with club members from SM Yu Yuen, Sandakan, Sabah.

The Prime Minister, when interacting said the setting up of the club in Sandakan was a testimony that the people in the country, including the people of Sabah, are confident with the 1Malaysia concept and the transformation agenda of the country.

He said the club can become a bridge for communication between him (Najib) and the people in Sabah to understand the feelings and expectation of the people towards the Government.

“Thank you for your confidence and support. I believe we can use this line of communication to exchange ideas and to make comments from time to time.

“I feel this is a very positive development because this will create not only good communication but also interpersonal relationship between all of you and the governor,” he said.

Najib said he hoped the trust of the people towards the Government would continue with the commitment of the Government to establish transformation as the main agenda of the country.

“We believe we are a strong government that can lead the country towards fulfilling the vision of becoming a developed nation. Malaysians are our responsibility and we must strive to promote harmony and stability among the various ethnics in Malaysia,” he said.

Najib said 1Malaysia was not just a slogan but rather an overarching philosophy to the principle of the nation, including policies and transformation agendas.

“1Malaysia is about forming, unity and harmony…it is based on fairness, inclusive and moderation…all that are part and parcel of the 1Malaysia philosophy.

“1Malaysia will be our overarching philosophy and with your support this nation will transform to be the first red nation and a nation that we can all be proud of,” he said. – Bernama

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

The lowest of the apartheid accepting ‘slaves’ KTK par excellence have just confirmed their pariah status. Good job Najib! You’v helped identify which Chinese and which Chinese families are no longer Chinese! Those that are lower than the MCA bunch here will not even be MCA members but who join out of sheer cluelessness. Say ‘Massa’ or ‘Tuan’ yer Goreans! How masochistic and unaware of equality can overseas (Malaysian) Chinese get!

Umno’s much-touted 66th general assembly ended with a whimper, its cries of being able to snatch two-thirds of the seats in Parliament downed by missiles that emanated from its own base boomeranging badly on its top leader – the scandal-plagued and embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Despite acknowledging that Umno’s notorious corruption was its own worst enemy, Najib failed to speak up against graft, introduce serious pre-emptive reforms or to even promise a new horizon where transparency would be the rule and not the exception.

His political rivals were not surprised, attributing this in large part due to at least 3 major pieces of shocking news that erupted just days before the Umno assembly started.

“What is there to say. It is so clear Umno cannot change. Its leaders can order the mainstream media, the TV and newspapers to black out the news. They can shout at how confident they are to win the 13th general election but Umno delegates and members have that sinking feeling in their hearts,” PAS MP for Shah Alam Khalid Samad told Malaysia Chronicle.

“Inwardly, many grassroots are disappointed and disgusted by the dishonesty and corruption of their leaders but they won’t do much because this is the nature of Umno. It has always been. Those who can’t stand it will leave, those who stay will hang on and hope for a piece of the gravy train even though they know it is corrupt.”

TRIPLE bombshells, more to come?

The first news break that shocked the country came from French lawyers, who revealed that the investigative judges hearing the RM7.3bil Scorpene case in Paris had decided that, contrary to the Malaysian government’s claims, murdered Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu was involved in Putrajaya’s acquisition of submarinnes from naval giant DCNS and would be requesting for full records of her murder trial.

This news set tongues wagging as Umno members thronged the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur where their annual congress was held. Perhaps the news reverberated all the more because Najib had foolishly refused to allow the French lawyers to come to Malaysia to brief Members of Parliament on the latest status of case, thereby increasing the suspicion against himself and his wife Rosmah Mansor, both of whom have been accused of involvement and whose former bodyguards were sentenced to hang for the murder.

Next were the twin bombshells dropped by carpet trader Deepak Jaikishan, a former close friend of Rosmah’s. According to Deepak, the first couple enlisted his help in overturning a statutory declaration that implicated them in the Altantuya murder. The news sparked calls for a re-opening of the Altantuya murder trial which has been questioned for its ‘quality’ of justice, with the court accused of ignoring evidence that the bodyguards may have been merely the hired killers and that the people who gave the order to murder still at large.

As if that were not enough and Umno members were not already reeling at the alleged misdeeds of their president and his wife, Deepak went on to accuse a “member of Najib’s family” of taking millions of ringgit for his approving the RM100 Puspahanas project, a research centre commissioned by the Ministry of Defense which despite being privatized in 2005 remains only about 20% built today.

“Umno’s ‘war’ 66th General Assembly has ended with UMNO leaders confident and euphoric, with the Umno Secretary-General Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and other Umno leaders declaring that Umno will not only triumph in the next general elections, but will win back the two-thirds parliamentary majority as well as all the four Pakatan states including Kelantan and Penang,” DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said in a statement.

“However, ‘Man proposes, God disposes’. Although the just-concluded Assembly was painstakingly choreographed and orchestrated, with a lot of do’s and don’t’s for those who spoke at the four-day Umno Assemblies to optimise Umno’s appeal in the 13GE, the ineluctable conclusion of rational and thinking Malaysians is that despite all the talk of “transformation”, Umno leaders and Umno are incapable of change so long as Umno remains corrupted in the corridors of power.

“Umno and Barisan Nasional have become synonymous with corruption in Malaysia and the 44 months of Najib premiership have shown that Najib is only good at mouthing anti-corruption slogans but totally lacking the political will and commitment to root out corruption, especially grand corruption involving political and government leaders.

“This is why the 66th UMNO General Assembly presented the sad spectacle of the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman, successfuly performing the “disappearance” act despite valiant efforts by the media representatives on a look-out for him to respond to demands by Sabah UMNO delegates that Musa explain the scandal of the RM40million “political donation to Sabah UMNO” which involved him and the Sabah timber trader Michael Chia.

“Also most disturbing is the backing out and silence of the Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi coupled with the failure of Najib to respond to the serious allegations of integrity about a RM100 million defence ministry project in 2005 raised by businessman Deepak Jaikishan implicating the Prime Minister’s family and which is also related to the high-profile and long-running Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case. Haunting Najib at the 66th UMNO General Assembly was the ghost of Altantuya Shaariibuu. Why couldn’t Altantuya’s ghost be appeased?”

Even the UMNO Malays might concede on the above 3 items than let Pakatan win.

UMNO will be torn apart after the Judiciary is replaced by Pakatan cronies. we all know how Malaysia works (too many legal beagles too few legal eagles), and the people might be displeased enough with UMNO too that Pakatan need not even ‘do the dirty work’, many terrible things probably happened by some faction’s hands in the past and who knows the aggrieved are just waiting for BN to be politically destroyed . .

BN REALLY should use the mandate to grant the above 3 items, that way at least they MIGHT have some places to run to avoid those they have hurt since independence or may yet turn the 40%+ minority and possibly majority of Malays to their side again. The above 3 items are rightful Human Rights, why risk losses in GE13 by not granting something so basic? Is racism and greed so much fun that GE13 is worth losing? For all the faults the article above points at, the chance to win is still there, IF Pakatan does not confirm the above 3 items and BN grants the above 3 items BEFORE GE13. As they say, ain’t over till over . . . but so long as BN does not use the mandate to grant the 3 items, BN with a record of abuses and failures and racism will indeed fail.

ARTICLE 20

THINK NAJIB! If you can’t even sort out Dr M or reform Umno, HOW CAN YOU RULE M’SIA? – Hornbill Unleashed – Martin Jalleh – December 10, 2012

The General Elections beckons and it looks as though the Prime Minister (PM) has gone berserk. He is making comments most bizarre! He blurts out statements beyond human logic!

Soon after the last General Elections he had warned his political party that either it changes or the government that it so dominates will be changed by the people.

He now surprisingly admits that Umno needs to change (The Malaysian Insider, 7 Dec., 2012). In other words, his party has not changed – which in fact clearly contradicts what he and his cohorts have been saying!

For instance the Sun Daily reported on 1 Dec. 2012: Following up on his apology for Umno’s past wrongdoings, at the opening of the party’s 66th general assembly…Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak today closed the annual event by exuding optimism that the people’s confidence for Umno is well on recovery mode.

“There is such tremendous response,” he told a euphoric crowd of delegates who seemed charged-up to defend the party’s hold over Malaysia in the upcoming general election.

“Not just from the Malay people…. The non-Malays also see Umno more positively than in the earlier times.

“They see that with each passing day, Umno is recovering even more… With each passing day, they see that Umno is qualified even more, to rule this country.

“We have shown that we are capable to remedy our condition. We are closing ranks and displaying an extraordinary spirit,” he said in his presidential speech at the Putra World Trade Centre here.

“Indicating to the party faithful – and voters at large – that Umno has indeed transformed and improved from what it was in the 2008 general election when the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition it led lost four states and its two-thirds majority in Parliament, he proceeded to dish out warnings at those in the party who may hamper it in the next election.”

Mandate from the people to reform Umno? But what if Umno still resists after Najib gets the mandate?

First you say Umno has changed. Yet in your latest comment you admit that it has not changed! Alas dear Mr PM are you not being a chameleon which you so often accuse Anwar Ibrahim of?

What is most preposterous is that Najib says “he needs a mandate from voters in order to reform Umno” (The Malaysian Insider, 7 Dec., 2012)!

“If I want to reform the party, I need a mandate from the people. Without the mandate from the electorate how can I reform the party?” he told the Malay Mail in an interview published recently.

The Malaysian Insider commented: “Reforming Umno has proven to be a monumental task despite the party’s and Barisan Nasional’s (BN) flagging popularity, particularly in urban areas.

“The Umno president has been pushing a reform agenda which included the repeal of security laws considered draconian and the push for a more multi-racial agenda.

“But conservative forces within the party, especially those linked with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, have resisted change and have pushed a more Malay-centric platform.

“Mindful of Dr Mahathir’s continued influence, Najib has been careful not to alienate the former PM who had contributed to BN’s worst electoral performance in Election 2008 when he campaigned against the administration of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

“But ahead of key national elections due next year, Prime Minister Najib said he was pleading for voters to grant him the mandate to continue his reform policies that can spur Malaysia forward for the greater good even as he acknowledges his party and the ruling BN coalition’s sluggishness towards change. (The Malaysian Insider, 7 Dec., 2012)

“With this mandate, a strong mandate from the people, I will deliver what I promised. This is not just about GE13, it’s about transforming the nation and I’m committed to it.”

Don’t be over-ambitious, Najib: Sort out Dr M first before you seek to rule the WHOLE nation

Why don’t you try to change your own party before you try to transform the whole nation, Mr PM?

“If I want to reform the party, I need a mandate from the people. Without the mandate from the electorate how can I reform the party?”

The mandate given by the people (the electorate) in the General Elections is to transform the country and not to reform your party! That’s Umno’s and your job!

Please get the mandate from your own party members to reform your own party! It appears that either you have failed to get the mandate from Umno members to change the party or in spite of the support given to you, you have failed to reform it.

And since you have failed to reform Umno, the party will be an obstacle to your plans to transform the country. It would not make any sense for you to continue as Umno president and as the PM.

And if you cannot even change your own party are we to expect that you are going to bring about change in the country?

Alas, perhaps it is time to change the president of Umno and the Prime Minister of this country!

MAILBAG

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Shut up Jalleh! I like what Najib is saying here IF thats sincere (doubtful but we’d never know but so long as the below 3 items are actually concretised, the voters couldn’t care less and will give PM Najib a second term) and relates to the below 3 items. What is Jalleh doing? Trying to goad Najib into the arms of those racists being berated? If BN grants :

;even the Chinese would vote BN over Pakatan which has never made clear on the above. Of course BN would be unlikely to grant the above given the number of racists, but Najib is indeed thinking and should not be hammered. Are you an UMNO disinfo agent Jalleh? Or just angry in a way that your articles are skewed in a manner that makes impossible the above 3 items?

Najib asked voters to give BN more time to execute the changes it has planned for the country. — Picture by Choo Choy May
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 ? Again calling for change in Barisan Nasional (BN), Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today voters are choosing Pakatan Rakyat (PR) because they want to send a message to the ruling coalition.

“The message is for us to change as a party,” the BN chairman said while launching the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) annual general meeting (AGM) here.

“They want BN as a party to be more fair, inclusive, and so that every citizen of Malaysia will receive equal treatment and benefits from BN.”

The prime minister’s remarks came after PPP president Datuk Seri M. Kayveas’s address, in which the latter said voters are flocking to PR because they are “worried” by perceived discrimination and prejudice under BN’s rule.

Fresh from closing Umno’s annual assembly here yesterday, Najib again called on voters to give BN more time to renew itself by supporting it in the polls.

“We’re in the process of renewal. Real changes are taking place in Malaysia.

“Real changes are taking place while the same party is in power in Malaysia,” the Umno president said.

Najib also criticised the “Ubah” (change) slogan touted by DAP and PR, comparing their call for change to the recent “Arab Spring” revolution.

“If we change, are we sure we’re getting something better?

“(The people involved in Arab Spring) are not enjoying the ‘spring weather’. They’re still in the winter of discontent,” Najib said.

The prime minister said that the revolutions in the Middle East had caused the countries involved to lose out on tourism and currency exchange, as well as suffer declines to their security.

But Najib also confessed that winning the next general election will not be easy, saying that voters’ opinions were now easily swayed by current issues.

“Before this, we can just put a songkok (to contest) and we would still win.

“Now we need to read the desires of the public, understand the wishes of the people.”

Najib then appeared to criticise grassroots leaders for failing to disseminate the aspirations of the BN administration effectively, leading to problems with perceived discrimination and prejudice.

“The problem is not at the top, the problem is on the ground.

“These people must try to understand what the government wants. If we say we must treat every citizen equally, the whole system … must do that,” Najib added to applause from the floor.

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Najib then appeared to criticise grassroots leaders for failing to disseminate the aspirations of the BN administration effectively, leading to problems with perceived discrimination and prejudice.

“The problem is not at the top, the problem is on the ground. “These people must try to understand what the government wants. If we say we must treat every citizen equally, the whole system … must do that,” Najib added to applause from the floor.

Politics should be about honesty, and civilisational Islam (or other religion) is not crony laws and racial privileges. As mentioned elsewhere, were a screen applied to ensure meritocracy (to mask race), a translation machine (to mask language), and a voice modulator and distortion screen or camera (to mask gender) applied at a job interview, we’d be surprised at the choices we make based on POLICY rather than race or religion or cult of personality (which harms the accuracy of content via sheer pathos via inverse civility). Then the concept of NATION would be real. Right now the ‘needs basis’ is based around wrong things like religion and race or even gender ‘quotas’, which is very backward and insulting to the host race the Malays, the minorities, or men in general. Let the best people lead and let them be limited in terms AND chosen with the above tech applied so that the above racial or gender or religious cues will not affect choices. Finally, a first world ‘Meritocracy’ of logic and ability (as opposed to mob minded and pathos based DEMOCRACY of majority) must include :

KOTA BARU: The 17-year-old teenager, who was issued a summons for allegedly giving his girlfriend a “piggy-back ride” at a public park, is upset and embarrassed following the incident.

The teenager, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had a tough time explaining to his mother that he was innocent and that he and his 15-year-old girlfriend did nothing indecent.

The teenager was given the summons for allegedly “piggy-backing” his girlfriend while jogging at Taman Tunku Anis at about 5.30pm on Oct 20.

“The incident was traumatic for me and my girlfriend because although I am not an expert in council by-laws, I think what I did was merely having fun with my girlfriend. It was far from an offence.

“We were just fooling around in broad daylight like any other teenager but the officer who approached us said it was improper for us to act like that in public.

“He continued giving us a lecture on morality and when I thought that we would be let off with a warning, he issued us with the summons,” he said yesterday adding that he was now in Kuala Lumpur after completing his SPM examinations.

Summonses had also been issued to two non-Muslim men were for allegedly embracing each other when they were found in a car parked near the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport at midnight on Oct 31. Both have denied the allegations.

The action against the four led to an outcry by various groups which likened it to imposing the Syariah law of close proximity or “khalwat” on non-Muslims.

The teenager also claimed he had argued with the officer as it was unfair to penalise someone when a verbal warning would suffice.

“When I got home that day, I showed the summons to my mother.

“She was very upset at first but when she saw the nature of the offence written in the summons, she believed that I had done nothing wrong.

“My mother thinks I should not have been issued with the summons and that is why she has brought up the matter with lawyers to ask their opinion on the matter,” he added.

He said the news about the incident spread and many assumed that he was involved in “hanky-panky business” with his girlfriend.

“All my friends wanted to know what happened in the park. But when I told them that my girlfriend was merely on my back, they did not believe me and after seeing the summons, my friends will now think twice about hanging out with their girlfriends anywhere.

“They are now afraid to even go to the park with their girlfriends,” she added.

He said he had been under some stress during the SPM examinations because of the incident.

“But I believe I did okay because my conscience is clear and my family is with me,” he said.

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Let all Malaysians vote only for MPs who believe in dropping the entire Syariah Court system in favour of the civil court system. Also :

Truth By Consensus – How To Control Our Thinking – by Zen Gardner – Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

Funny how this works. People actually think they can arrive at the truth by averaging what they hear. Seriously. That’s how most people are taught to think. I get this argument all the time. It totally explains the power of the mass media. Just think about this dynamic. How do people arrive at conclusions? What information or lack thereof are they deriving them from? Pretty stark reality if you’re willing to look it in the eyes. People are incredibly similar in their outlook and understandings. And hence behaviors. Incredibly so. Like we’re following a script. Look at yourself. How you dress, the expressions you use, what you’re into. No matter what segment of society you’re living in, it’s pretty freaky. I remember when I decided to grow out my facial hair and looking in the mirror thinking, “Am I following some meme being broadcast by these bastards?”

Paranoid? Totally. It’s the only way on this planet. Completely healthy. If you’re not, you’re not awake yet. Truth is Never Popular. While a defined consensus gets established and reaffirms the status quo, “contrary” eddies of thought and realization make their way through the public psyche. These are carefully ferreted out by the watchdog media cabal and portrayed as “fringe” ideas and “conspiracy theories” of course. Carefully and dutifully packaged and sublimated into a negative subconscious arena for the mainstream unawakened. Anything contrary is now anathema, resented; spuriously thrown overboard as wing nut conspiracy talk. Typical. And more importantly…very effective and very efficient.

Getting To the Point

I’ll take Truth over BS fairy tales any day of eternity. No matter the pain and seeming loss of emotional or otherwise investments, bring on the Truth. 9/11 is always the standard reminder of how duped the world can be. Plain as the nose on your face those towers were brought down by some sort of exotic and carefully planned out demolition technique, but what the hell. No one cares. Or very few. At least that’s the portrayal we get and it seems to hold way too much water. People are even afraid to discuss the subject. That’s when you know society has been seriously hemmed in and headed for dismemberment. As obvious as it is, the Truth can just be right there without people being able to see it. It’s the condition of our “race”…we want to believe what we want and will cloak it in “positive thinking” or “idealism” or imposed bottom line security needs whenever we can for peace and comfort. Very, very sad from the Truth perspective, but oh so understandable. Blindness until awakened. What a tale. But behold the awakening in spite of all this!

Enter Psycho-Sexual Addiction

This psychological pandering we’re witnessing is simply a ploy to keep the masses asleep. The populace has been duped, hypnotized, seduced. It no longer can contain, maintain or control itself. It must have the savories and goodies of the system or it will go berserk. This addiction is firmly established. Football, advertising, game shows, reality dramas, zombie and vampire horror and sci-fi movies while sucking down addictive, poisonous foods………”Please bring it on! We want more! We want another reality, not our own!” Scantily dressed young girls, sculpted effeminized men, cross sexual weirdness of every type and genre…. …bring it on. Chaos is our new middle name–in fact, their manipulated shifting world is apparently our New Normal. ‘Chaos is the new normal’ is as cognitively dissonant as the ‘war on terrorism’. Orwell, you must be howling!

Summary

Know what you “believe” about not only their false structure, but our true reality, to the point it’s not a belief. Please know each of those as facts…not an emotional extension of some hope or sense of idealism. Be sure you’re deciding for yourself and not following anything unconsciously. We’re not used to that kind of truly independent thought, having been taught all our lives to just follow, obey and repeat, so it’s a lot of work and a set of muscles that have to be developed. You’ll see what I mean as it goes along. Affirming our conscious awakening in spirit, word and deed is our primary purpose and most potent weapon. Not only against the usurpers and the ignorance and darkness that seems to rule our current paradigm, but for the development and realization of the true conscious reality that is there to be expressed into this dimension. Get busy being and doing what you know is right and the rest will follow, I guarantee. Because that’s how it works. And do it in love. If we can wake up, anybody can. Love, Zen

“If you’re not free to follow life’s signs and live in synchronicity, you’re not free.” – Zen

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

. . . It must have the savories and goodies of the system or it will go berserk. . . . Chaos is our new middle name–in fact, their manipulated shifting world is apparently our New Normal. . . .

Actually savouries or goodies MUST not be considered such. Chaos is not ‘our’ new middle name, Chaos is not mainstream, Chaos is going to take a proper place WITHOUT punishment. There is no way ‘Chaos’ can co-opt you unless you are Chaotically inclined, and given the need of Chaos in evolution per se, I’d say Chaos is the very most important thing to ANY species which wants to move on, even as older structures become increasingly exotic and rarefied to the point of gaining value (in retarded areas of the 3rd world, the rare are villified much like LGBT, in the right places, the rare’d be exotic and invested in to ensure survival . . . ).

Religion would have taken the role of rare, but the overproliferation and low quality of followers, obvious internal rot and abusive nature of religion says that religion is already over-proliferated and people being subconsciously sick of religion, acting whatever in the only way they can, to sabotage religion much like pedo-priests protesting celibacy, Islamists protesting no alcohol and no pork rules by being violent, Buddhists acquiring car collections and much trappings of wealth and gold all around the temple (Temples to rampant-Capitalism and Greed), even as Buddha said to not be materialistic, can we see that the highest ranked in the faith actually do the most opposite? I wonder if I do enough ‘opposite’ I’d be the Ecclesiarch Primifex of the Planet . . .

. . . So get busy being and doing what you know is right and the rest will follow, I guarantee. Because that’s how it works. . . .

Don’t accidentally co-opt what is already known as your own!

@Zen appears to be quite fused with whatever mass mind or community hive @Zen is from (@Zen is less hive minded overall but still enough to identify that the mindset is still hivelike). Truth By Consensus problems as describe above are however correct. Subversive article with a good NLP positive article that disparages ‘Chaos’? Hard to say, but whatever we gravitate to, that is what we truly are, everything else is just nonsense, regardless of whatever laws or social trends, though spaces appropriate to size and facilities must be available to all and sundry in either case.

BEIJING, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) — China has expressed serious concern and firm opposition to a U.S. bill that regards China’s territory as under the authority of a U.S.-Japan security pact.

At a regular press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters, “The Chinese side expresses serious concern and firm opposition to the U.S. Senate’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which involves the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets.”

In the bill, which the U.S. Senate passed last week, the United States reaffirmed that it “takes no position” on the ultimate sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands. However, the bill notes that Japan has the rights of administration over the territory and that “unilateral actions of a third party” would not affect its position.

Hong said the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets have always been the inherent territory of China since ancient times, and China has undisputed sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands.

According to the U.S. bill, any armed attack “in the territories under the administration of Japan” would be met under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security.

Hong called the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan as a “product of the Cold War era”, saying it should not go beyond bilateral scopes, nor undermine the interests of a third party.

Hong said the U.S. side has repeatedly stated that it will not take sides on territory disputes between China and Japan.

He said the U.S. side “should not send out signals that conflict with each other.” He expressed the hope that the U.S. side would “proceed from the general situation of peace and stability of the region”, “keep its words” and “do more things that are conducive to peace and stability in the region.”

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

The islands were part of Chinese territory with an indigenous people that accepted vassalship under the Chinese Emperor until the 8 Foreign Powers invasion and later Japanese expansion in WW1 and 2. USA should understand that sovereignty loss during war cannot have legal continuity under occupiers or aggressors when the war ends. How would USA like for the Native Ameri-Indians to kick them back to Europe?

ARTICLE 2

Ooh Baby It’s a Wild World – by Daniel J. Flynn on 11.30.12 @ 6:08AM

It’s a jungle out there for transanimals.

The humans called Dennis Avner “Stalking Cat.” His kind referred to him as “meow.”

The cat-like Avner, who held the Guinness Book of World Records mark for body modifications — including a bifurcated lip, extensive tiger-stripe facial tattooing, surgically pointed ears, and silicone injections in the cheeks, chin, and forehead — died earlier this month.

The human authorities suspect he killed himself. I suspect humans, threatened that one of their own had defected to the cat community, killed him.

Human nature, alien to Stalking Cat, remains quite familiar with suicide. The dearth of documented cases of self-inflicted felicide raises suspicions. Only an Ace Ventura could definitively answer this whodunit. The one certainty here is that it’s a jungle out there for a person who realizes he, she, or it is an animal trapped in a human’s body.

Dennis Avner never found acceptance among mankind as a felid despite the plastic surgeries, the tattoos, and the silicone injections. He was, in a loose sense, a real-life Philip Nolan — a manimal without a species.

Biology is the new racism. The phobia against transanimals recalls the societal obstinacy regarding transgenders. We exiled them to the “third bathroom,” inscribed pesky reminders of their physiology on their driver’s licenses, and imprisoned them with criminals of the opposite gender. Some men still won’t consider dating a woman who was born a “man” — whatever that antiquated designation means. One surmises that Stalking Cat encountered similar prejudices among potential dating partners of all sexes and species.

Society’s rejection of transanimals results in their rejection of themselves. When a man splits his tongue, amputates his arms, and fuses his legs together to realize his inner serpent, society calls him crazy, a freak, and troubled — instead of what he is: a snake. We will become as sane as they are only when we finally see transanimals as they see themselves.

All this recalls the dark ages when we denied that one biologically born a male who surgically remade herself as female was as much a woman as your mother. Dennis Avner was as much a cat as Chastity Bono is a man.

Yet, many landlords won’t rent to transanimals. Their contracts stipulate “no pets.” Restaurants still post “no dogs allowed” signs. Public parks demand that you keep animals on a leash. Dennis Avner served in the Navy. But he did so in the form of a human being. The ban on transspecies soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines persists despite the obvious intimidation factor that a battalion of tiger-men would impose on the enemy.

What was Stalking Cat supposed to make of the many restrictions, formal and informal, that civilization imposed upon his wild spirit?

Transanimals face a gross double standard vis-à-vis transgenders. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services decrees that the Affordable Care Act forbids discrimination against transgendered patients within federally funded programs. U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf, a Reagan appointee, has ordered Massachusetts taxpayers to fund gender reassignment surgery for Michelle Kosilek, an inmate convicted of murdering his wife after she caught him in her clothes. Sixteen state governments find a compelling interest in forbidding employers from taking into account a man’s metamorphosis into a woman, or vice versa, when hiring and firing.

By what logic do these states, the federal judge, and HHS, which prohibit discrimination based on gender identity, then permit discrimination based on animal identity?

In fits of self-absolution, tormentors conveniently maintain that the extinction of Stalking Cat, along with a transgender suicide rate 25 times the general population’s, proves that self-mutilation begins a slow self-destruction that ends in one’s ultimate destruction. Society has dysphoria over sexual, and species, dysphoria. We lose some of our humanity when we don’t extend it to gharials, capybaras, and narwhals. Cats are people too.

Mourn Dennis Avner’s tragic demise. But celebrate the miracle of his longevity. While most house cats survive to about 15, Stalking Cat lived to 54. If you last that many years more, you will surely meet others of his kind.

The bodies of four people who had been shot to death were found face-down Sunday outside a suburban Southern California home that apparently served as an unlicensed boarding house, authorities said.

Los Angeles police were seeking a motive for the attacks at the house in Northridge, in the San Fernando Valley.

Lt. Terri Brinkmeyer said a 911 call led police to the large house around 4:30 a.m. Cmdr. Andrew Smith said the bodies of two men and two women were found face-down on a side yard of the property.

Investigators were questioning several people who were on the property at the time of the shooting, but no one has been detained or arrested.

Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander, who represents the area, said the house was split into several units for rent. He said at least a dozen people lived in the house, which contained several bedrooms, kitchenettes and mattresses on the floor.

“It appears from the nature of things that this was an unlicensed boarding facility,” Englander said from the crime scene. He noted that one bedroom was only accessible through a window.

The house was on street lined with houses, schools and places of worship.

“This is a very safe neighborhood. This type of thing doesn’t normally happen here,” Englander said.

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Places of worship is the keyword here perhaps. Fundo alert. Or religion contrived sense of entitlement that caused strife with possible secularists.

CHICAGO — The now familiar term “Asperger’s disorder” is being dropped. And abnormally bad and frequent temper tantrums will be given a scientific-sounding diagnosis called DMDD. But “dyslexia” and other learning disorders remain.

The revisions come in the first major rewrite in nearly 20 years of the diagnostic guide used by the nation’s psychiatrists. Changes were approved Saturday.

Full details of all the revisions will come next May when the American Psychiatric Association’s new diagnostic manual is published, but the impact will be huge, affecting millions of children and adults worldwide. The manual also is important for the insurance industry in deciding what treatment to pay for, and it helps schools decide how to allot special education.

This diagnostic guide “defines what constellations of symptoms” doctors recognize as mental disorders, said Dr. Mark Olfson, a Columbia University psychiatry professor. More important, he said, it “shapes who will receive what treatment. Even seemingly subtle changes to the criteria can have substantial effects on patterns of care.”

Olfson was not involved in the revision process. The changes were approved Saturday in suburban Washington, D.C., by the psychiatric association’s board of trustees.

The aim is not to expand the number of people diagnosed with mental illness, but to ensure that affected children and adults are more accurately diagnosed so they can get the most appropriate treatment, said Dr. David Kupfer. He chaired the task force in charge of revising the manual and is a psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

One of the most hotly argued changes was how to define the various ranges of autism. Some advocates opposed the idea of dropping the specific diagnosis for Asperger’s disorder. People with that disorder often have high intelligence and vast knowledge on narrow subjects but lack social skills. Some who have the condition embrace their quirkiness and vow to continue to use the label.

And some Asperger’s families opposed any change, fearing their kids would lose a diagnosis and no longer be eligible for special services.

But the revision will not affect their education services, experts say.

The new manual adds the term “autism spectrum disorder,” which already is used by many experts in the field. Asperger’s disorder will be dropped and incorporated under that umbrella diagnosis. The new category will include kids with severe autism, who often don’t talk or interact, as well as those with milder forms.

Kelli Gibson of Battle Creek, Mich., who has four sons with various forms of autism, said Saturday she welcomes the change. Her boys all had different labels in the old diagnostic manual, including a 14-year-old with Asperger’s.

“To give it separate names never made sense to me,” Gibson said. “To me, my children all had autism.”

Three of her boys receive special education services in public school; the fourth is enrolled in a school for disabled children. The new autism diagnosis won’t affect those services, Gibson said. She also has a 3-year-old daughter without autism.

People with dyslexia also were closely watching for the new updated doctors’ guide. Many with the reading disorder did not want their diagnosis to be dropped. And it won’t be. Instead, the new manual will have a broader learning disorder category to cover several conditions including dyslexia, which causes difficulty understanding letters and recognizing written words.

The trustees on Saturday made the final decision on what proposals made the cut; recommendations came from experts in several work groups assigned to evaluate different mental illnesses.

The revised guidebook “represents a significant step forward for the field. It will improve our ability to accurately diagnose psychiatric disorders,” Dr. David Fassler, the group’s treasurer and a University of Vermont psychiatry professor, said after the vote.

The shorthand name for the new edition, the organization’s fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, is DSM-5. Group leaders said specifics won’t be disclosed until the manual is published but they confirmed some changes. A 2000 edition of the manual made minor changes but the last major edition was published in 1994.

Olfson said the manual “seeks to capture the current state of knowledge of psychiatric disorders. Since 2000 … there have been important advances in our understanding of the nature of psychiatric disorders.”

Catherine Lord, an autism expert at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York who was on the psychiatric group’s autism task force, said anyone who met criteria for Asperger’s in the old manual would be included in the new diagnosis.

One reason for the change is that some states and school systems don’t provide services for children and adults with Asperger’s, or provide fewer services than those given an autism diagnosis, she said.

Autism researcher Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, said small studies have suggested the new criteria will be effective. But she said it will be crucial to monitor so that children don’t lose services.

Other changes include:

—A new diagnosis for severe recurrent temper tantrums — disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Critics say it will medicalize kids’ who have normal tantrums. Supporters say it will address concerns about too many kids being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with powerful psychiatric drugs. Bipolar disorder involves sharp mood swings and affected children are sometimes very irritable or have explosive tantrums.

—Eliminating the term “gender identity disorder.” It has been used for children or adults who strongly believe that they were born the wrong gender. But many activists believe the condition isn’t a disorder and say calling it one is stigmatizing. The term would be replaced with “gender dysphoria,” which means emotional distress over one’s gender. Supporters equated the change with removing homosexuality as a mental illness in the diagnostic manual, which happened decades ago.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

People are weird and different. The Victorian Era destroyed LGBT and butchered half the world’s indigenous cultures, many of which were LGBT friendly. The Victorian Era also propagated Christianity, which subsumed and destroyed many native faiths as well as subverted many world citizens into colonial mindsets that still persist this day. The English were expelled from the USA, sadly the Christian faith still is afflicting many populations worldwide. The English incidentally were the Angles, a group of GERMANIC outcasts that murdered the Celtic and Nordic cultures of the Isles, occupied thier lands, and butchered all the way through Africa, India and later China destroying lives, cultures and native religions for mere ‘paganism’ (those who didn’t want to belive in ‘god’ were heathens and ‘soulless’ needed to be murdered in those days . . . no end.

Onion editor: Tricking China has a “certain delightfulness”
A Chinese news site takes an Onion satire for a real story
The Onion declares North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “sexiest man alive”
People’s Daily Online runs portions of the Onion story and 55 photos of Kim

(CNN) — China, as one Twitter user wrote Tuesday, has been fooled by the “mysterious Western art of satire.”

The merciless comedy website The Onion has declared North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the “sexiest man alive for 2012.” And it appears China’s People’s Daily Online has taken the story seriously.

The Chinese story reprinted satirical comments describing Kim’s “air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side,” his “impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and,” the story says, “that famous smile.”
A Chinese state-run site was fooled Tuesday by a satirical story that declared North Korea\’s Kim Jong Un the \
A Chinese state-run site was fooled Tuesday by a satirical story that declared North Korea’s Kim Jong Un the “sexiest man alive.”

The story on People’s Daily Online on Tuesday illustrates the mutual backscratching that China and North Korea exercise through their government-run media. The incident also shows foreign media outlets’ difficulty in navigating The Onion’s brand of satire.

The Chinese website had underscored its story by including its own 55-page photo gallery to accompany the text, which was published in both English and Chinese. But the pages and the images were no longer available Wednesday.

A woman responding to a call Wednesday to the office of the website said it was “impossible that the People’s Daily will quote from any unreliable media — we do verify our news and sources.”

The woman, who declined to identify herself, noted that the item had been removed.

The People’s Daily Online has a separate office from the print version of the Chinese Communist Party’s main newspaper.

Tracy said he’s not surprised when legitimate news sites fall for his high-level tomfoolery, but this was the first time The Onion had named a “sexiest man alive.” “We knew it would get a response,” he said “but we didn’t expect it would get life from abroad.”

A satirical post on The Onion congratulated the People’s Daily for its coverage.

The site “has served as one of the Onion’s Far East bureaus for quite some time, and I believe their reportage as of late has been uncommonly fine, as well as politically astute,” said The Onion’s Grant Jones in a e-mail statement. “May our felicitous business association continue for centuries to come.”

Yes. Again. If this scenario sounds familiar it’s because The Onion is no stranger to fooling government-run news outlets.

In September, an Onion satire fooled Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency. Fars published an Onion story claiming that a Gallup poll found that rural white Americans preferred Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over President Barack Obama.

On the Chinese microblog Sina Weibo, netizens made their own teasing comments about People’s Daily.

“Foolish foreigners, the party paper was born to be funny,” wrote @sheldon-BaiBai.

“The world was fooled by the People’s Daily, because no Chinese believes this paper,” wrote @Hai_Dao_Wu_Bian.

The Onion never writes its stories with the intention of fooling government agencies, Tracy said. But “it’s great when it happens. We hope it happens more often.”

This prank, he said with obvious glee, may turn out to be the legendary Onion fake story that veterans will talk about for years to come. “We essentially just fooled the government of China.”

CNN’s Jethro Mullen and CY Xu contributed to this report.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Remember the boy who cried wolf? And if this is intended to harrass the foreign media, The Onion is just inviting the Chinese to do the same to foreign media portals. If this becomes rampant, then news on the internet will become rubbish or manipulative unreadable agenda laden nonsesne, and the MSM papers which will still remain propaganda, become more influencial and manipulative of the citizens locally until the dark pre-info-ages take hold again through sheer contrivedness and agenda loaded inaccuracy of articles. The Onion is opening a can of worms that could down all online media or online media accuracy if not careful . . . If the CNN, BBC and Peoples Daily or whatever online media do not remain strictly accurate in reporting, above the fray of b.s., the world will be poorer for the lack of ethics for preference of manipulation to bad ends.

Sometimes a highly individualistic name for a baby is not good news for a kid, says Dean Obeidallah

Dean Obeidallah: A new list of popular 2012 baby names includes Siri, Mac, Luna
He says it’s not just celebrities with offbeat baby-naming now; it’s spreading to the rest of us
He says studies show distinctive names can spur teasing and mistreatment
Obeidallah: Parents, think twice on names; it could have long-term effect on your child

Editor’s note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is a political comedian and frequent commentator on various TV networks including CNN. He is the editor of the politics blog “The Dean’s Report” and co-director of the upcoming documentary “The Muslims Are Coming!” Follow him on Twitter: @deanofcomedy

(CNN) — Siri, Mars, Mac and Luna. I’m not talking Apple products or planetary terms. These are baby names. And not just any baby names but ones that have jumped in popularity in 2012, according to Baby Center.com’s just released list.

Baby Siri? Seriously, who would name their bundle of joy after a frustrating Apple product that hardly ever works? And speaking of Apple (see daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin,) that name moved up a whopping 585 places on the list of names for girls born in 2012. So there could conceivably be a family out there with a daughter named Apple and a son named Siri. (Hope that entitles the family to a discount on an iMac.)

There was a time when bizarre baby naming was something only celebrities did to their kids (as if being the child of a celebrity wasn’t challenging enough). There’s Beyonce and Jay Z’s Blue Ivy, Penn Jillette’s son, Moxie Crimefighter, Bono’s daughter Memphis Eve, actor Jason Lee’s son Pilot Inspektor, and the list goes on and on.

But now this “condition” is apparently spreading to the rest of us. In addition to the offbeat names above, 2011 saw babies sporting such names as: Moo, Draper, Graceland and Tequila.

There are even media reports that this past weekend some parents allegedly named their newborn daughter, Hashtag. That one may turn out to be an Internet hoax, but after last year’s story of a child in Egypt being named Facebook (in praise of the role Facebook played in the Egyptian revolution), we can’t be too far from babies named Retweet and Spam Blocker anyway. It truly is only a matter of time until you meet a kid named DVR or Playstation 3.
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Apparently some parents believe that giving their child a jaw-dropping name will make him or her more distinctive. News flash: it’s not the name that makes your child stand out, it’s his or her achievements.

While I don’t want to rain on creativity, let’s be honest — these weird names are more about parents showing off their “cleverness” than about finding a name that fits the child. It’s not like the parents got to know the child first for a few months and then said, “You know this baby really is a little Siri.”
Beyonce, Jay-Z welcome baby Blue Ivy
Jolie: We are all Malala

And do these parents even consider that a baby’s name can cause consequences for the child that the parents never imagined, and in many areas of the child’s life? When I reflect upon my own name, I realize that my life could have been far different if my parents had followed their initial instincts when naming me.

My Palestinian father wanted to name me Saladin after the famous Muslim leader, while my Sicilian mother wanted to name me Dino. Instead they compromised on Dean.

Growing up in North Jersey, Dean was not a common name. But it actually made me feel different in a good way being the only Dean in my class. And even today in looking at the list of baby names for 2012, I was actually happy that Dean was not in the top 100.

Still, the truth is, if I’d been named Dino, I would have certainly been viewed as more ethnic by teachers, potential employers and co-workers. I would have been required to continually overcome cultural stereotypes.

And if I’d been named the very Arabic Saladin Obeidallah, you could just imagine all the “fun” I would have had in post-9/11 America. I would have likely volunteered for “random” security checks at the airport to make it easier for all involved or simply got used to taking the bus cross country.

But there’s a difference between a name that isn’t overly common and naming your child after your favorite appliance. A name is a big part of a kid’s identity. It can trigger impressions about a child even before we meet him or her — a particular problem among the closed-minded of the world, but this is the world your child will have to navigate.

For example, studies have found that children with names that linguistically sound like they come from a lower socioeconomic status are less likely to be recommended by school officials for gifted classes and actually more likely to be labeled as learning disabled.

Other research has revealed that boys with feminine sounding names — such as Shannon or Ashley — have had more disciplinary problems in school because of their response to teasing. Still other studies have found a link between how much people like their own names and their level of self-esteem.

So, parents, keep in mind that your choice of name will have a lasting impact on your child — both for good and bad. And if you insist on picking a bizarre name for the baby, then I propose that your child be empowered to rename you with any name he or she chooses. At least then it’s fair that a child named Hashtag has parents named Angry Birds and YouTube.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

In the past there were in some cultures NAMING CEREMONIES AT ADULTHOOD. The child would choose a name LATER, and all children knew their names when young were TEMPORARY and that parents chose those names. Sometimes what the child did that was most unique would also decide what that child was RENAMED at adulthood. So ‘Hashtag’ away and legalise/normalise name changing at the age of 21. Knowing that names are temporary and chosen by parents, kids would not be affected by teasing because they knew they were going to change that name, or the teasers would not bother to tease knowing the name would also change by then.

Shocked complainant said she would never walk her dog in Oropi Park, New Zealand, again
Andrew Pointon, 47, was charged with offensive behaviour for his naked runs
But appeal judge agrees that naked body by itself is not offensive

The right to go jogging in the nude has been upheld by the High Court in New Zealand.

Andrew Lyall Pointon, 47, was wearing only a pair of shoes when he was spotted by a woman while running at 8.30am in a forest near Tauranga in August last year.

She called police and he was arrested during another nude run.

Pointon was charged with offensive behaviour and found guilty in Tauranga District Court last December.

An appeal was thrown out in June, but a second appeal has just been upheld by Justice Paul Heath in the High Court at Tauranga.

‘If it was [offensive] then God wouldn’t have given us genitals,’ Mr Pointon told The Dominion Post.

‘It is a win for all libertarians and a setback for all conservatives in the country.’

The judge, Justice Heath, compared the situation to passing ‘gang members’ walking through the park.

He said: ‘It would not be surprising for a person in the position of the complainant to be concerned and discomforted by their presence, and even to feel threatened.

‘However, on any view, their behaviour would not be regarded as offensive behaviour.

‘Should the sight of a naked man, in the circumstances in which the complainant found herself, be treated any differently? I think not.’

He added that he felt Pointon was ‘a genuine naturist’ who had taken measures to avoid disturbing others – such as choosing a time when children would be unlikely to be on the track.

But Family First spokesman Bob McCoskrie said he was disappointed and said Justice Heath’s decision shows ‘double standards’.

He asked: ‘Is it okay for someone to streak through his courtroom? He’d be the first one to put them in the cells.’
Picturesque: The jogger was spotted close to Tauranga harbour in New Zealand

Picturesque: The jogger was spotted close to Tauranga harbour in New Zealand

Naturist Mr Pointon said he enjoyed the freedom of not wearing clothes and began running naked about 18 months ago.

The complainant, who was out walking her dog when she spotted Pointon, said she was so offended that she did not wish to ever return to the Oropi Bike Park.

But Pointon lashed out at the woman who complained.

He said: ‘It’s just ludicrous. Has this person got nothing better to do than wasting everyone’s time?

‘All she saw was a naked man running through the bush. It was just a fleeting moment, which has cost us all.

‘It just shows that it was a stupid decision by police to go ahead … and charge me for something totally irrelevant.’

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Perhaps a nudist’s track to keep the 2 different groups seperate.

ARTICLE 7

A Good Example of Forms and Blogospheres Littered with NLPs : 2012, I am tired – Topic started on 9-12-2012 @ 02:48 AM by TheAlmo – reply posted on 9-12-2012 @ 03:00 AM by xxshadowfaxx

I just want the date to come. Lots of mystery surround it, lots of theories, but no one knows a damn thing.

If anything is going to happen, its going to be something we haven’t seen before. Something the ancients tracked 25000 years ago. No one alive today can possibly know what it is. We don’t even know for sure if we have the right date. All the math is very precise and it seems that dec 21 is certainly a good possibility, but we may be off by hundreds of years. All we can do is wait and see.

Soon you won’t have to worry about it anymore because it is only 12 days away now. Whatever happens, happens, theres nothing anyone can do about it.

Also, its definitely possible to be love. Love is a state of being, and beneath all your problems, all your thoughts, is a state of love. When you can learn to silence the mind, and learn how to move energy through your chakras, you will find yourself in a state of love. It is beautiful to experience. All the people that talk about are trying to tell you something, and most of us ignore it completely. But the answers to all questions truely do lie within us. Once you be love, once you attain that state, you are given knowledge about who you are, what you are, and what your purpose is. You will experience the divine.

Commentator Response

I am tired you guys. Enough. This is insane.

The amount of 2012 topics on ATS and everywhere is staggering. It seems everyone takes a shot at it. Everyone. You guys turned the year 2012 into a prostitute year that everyone can buy and f*** for a while.

The problem is that I go through phases. Sometimes, I just really don’t pay attention at all and I don’t even try to rationalize or criticize the material I am exposed to. Other times, I find myself so angry about it and digging deep to find every logical fallacy there is. You know why this happens to me? Because:

1- My mood changes from time to time
2- The 2012 shower is an everlasting one that never ever stops.

What do you mean if I don’t “embrace” the change I won’t feel anything and December 21 will be just another day?

Can this lunacy get anymore vile and degrading to our intellect? I am sorry, but even the most spiritual practices can be “practicalized” if you know what I mean. You can ask me to actively stop thinking about people that I hate or that I even hate them. I can do that. But what do you mean when you say “Be Love”? How can someone be love? Can you be Batman? A sandwich? I don’t know. Be love? Embrace change? This all reminds me of an incident when I was a kid walking by a public swimming pool and a guy was teaching his 6-ish years old son to swim by saying: maintain your balance… don’t drown.

Yeah… the best thing to say to tell someone who’s drowning: yell at them: don’t drown. dude, not cool, you’re gonna die, maintain your balance. work physics to make it happen.

I am tired of this nonsensical spiritual masturbation.

What about doom and gloom?

Are you gonna tell me where to go? What to do? Or just scream around and run all over the place like a fuc*** moron? What? No place to go? Nothing to do? Where is the warning then? It’s not like you’re gonna say “told you so” later.

I am tired of this. It’s too much. It’s everywhere. Everywhere I go.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Thats the problem with the people. The laws written cause this, so vote for a candidate not of the 1% (plutocrat or political nepotist) or run as candidate yourself if there is no such candidate. Write and ratify laws to distribute national wealth and unused national land (the country belongs to all citizens so why should a handful of GLC cronies get everything, even the land and wealth from natural resources belong to the people and must be shared to reserved for a handful of politicians who can be easily identified if mega-wealthy), and end the raison d’etre for NLP articles. This way there will be enough harmony so that the world need not end, or if the world ends, everyone was happy anyway.

ARTICLE 8

How The Cost of a Degree is Now £100,000 – Posted on December 9, 2012 by Zen-Haven – Author: Paul Gallagher

The true cost of a university degree will rocket to up to £100,000 for today’s students, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

Thousands of people currently studying at university will end up paying that amount over their career because of interest charges and other fees – several times the £27,000 or £36,000 in fees that most three- and four-year courses charge.

The landmark figure, revealed in the Government’s own documents, is far higher than the £70,000 in repayments that it was previously thought students would end up paying over their lifetimes. The Government figures confirm that graduates who find well-paid jobs – in finance and law, for example – will be able to save tens of thousands of pounds by paying off their loans more quickly than the vast majority of their counterparts on middle incomes.

Even before they started in September, every student was hit with a hidden charge: for repayment purposes, the total cost of tuition is backdated to day one, meaning that the majority of the 300,000 three-year students and 117,000 four-year students currently studying will graduate with an extra £3,300 or £5,000 bill respectively, according to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) website. Many students will repay up to four times the cost of their tuition during the 30 years following graduation, after which any remaining debt is written off.

Add in other living costs and average student debt is now predicted to hit £53,000 by graduation. Accountants say billions of pounds of student debt will never be repaid, leaving “a massive tax time bomb” for generations to come.

Based on the Government’s figures, almost 300,000 students – 70 per cent of those studying – who started university in the autumn will repay between £65,000 and £85,000, while those in the highest income bracket pay back less because they will start to pay off their debts sooner. About 10 per cent who are in the “squeezed middle” could end up paying back between £85,000 and £100,000. The 20 per cent of graduates with the lowest lifetime earnings (a group dominated by women) will never come close to repaying their fees and the debt will be written off after 30 years.

The Government’s own projections lay out details of what students and graduates would owe at the start of each year in interest and repayment charges. What graduates pay back each month depends on their earnings: 9 per cent of income above £21,000 a year, independent of both the interest rate and the size of the loan. The amount due increases with time because interest is added. A 28-year-old male beginning a three-year course and whose starting salary of £21,000 quickly rises to £60,000 in year four, and is a six-figure salary by year 15, will settle his bill in 13 years, repaying just over £42,000. A woman who earns less than a third of that in her lifetime and who begins work a few years after graduating repays almost £62,000 over 28 years. A woman in her twenties who earns less than £1m in her career and takes time out to have a family will pay back less than £20,000, leaving an unpaid debt of almost £60,000. Scottish students in Scotland have their fees paid, while students in Northern Ireland pay a maximum £3,575 a year tuition.

Peter West, financial director at Portal, a computer company in Bracknell, Berkshire, said: “No one is aware of the long-term implications of this accounting wheeze. Higher education reform is a victimless crime and a massive tax time bomb. The Government has simply shifted all the debt off the accounting sheet for now – but, my God, will it come back and hit us in 30 years’ time.”

Susan Cooper, professor of experimental physics from the University of Oxford, said: “If the £21,000 repayment threshold doesn’t increase with inflation, the requirement for repayment can become much more onerous over the 30-year period. And maybe the 30 years could be increased as well. The higher the costs, the more the Government has to write off 30 years later. One could have wished for a more thorough thinking through of the consequences before being launched into this experiment.”

The University and College Union general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “The Government rushed through higher fees without properly considering the financial consequences. We warned at the time that fees close to £9,000 a year would be the norm and that the calculations for repayment by graduates were flawed.”

A spokesperson for BIS said: “Extending the write-off period to 30 years was fully costed as part of the whole repayment system. The new system helps reduce the deficit, is affordable and sustainable for the Government, while offering protection for those who may not go on to high-paid employment.”

Chuka Umunna, Labour business spokesman, said: “Students will never forgive this government for hiking up the costs of going to university. This figures show that, as ever, it is middle- and lower-income families who are being hit hardest.”

The NUS president, Liam Burns, added: “It is shocking that politicians treat the potential of a generation before they have even started their working career with such nonchalance.”

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

The problem is that the establishment (or NWO) has already decided which people friendly to the regime of the day will get the top jobs that can actually influence policy or social culture. So even before enrollment or payment, those who are not on the same wavelength of the Education-STUDENT-DEBT-Financiar Complex (nominlly fused with the dominant religious institutions of the region – if these are not insane or hated or indulging in pedophilia) had better not even bother with ‘Education’ and instead learn how to vote and educate others on how to vote. The system is stacked EVEN at education level and hardly neutral. Identify this and act accordingly by refusing to spend anything on education. Free spirits beware, the mob mentality of society comprised with useless eaters only enriches the 1% term limitless plutocrats and political nepotists.

ARTICLE 9

Celebration of the Nudists of the 2010s : Ai Weiwei investigated over nude art – Chinese artist says he is under investigation for spreading pornography, after pictures including One Tiger Eight Breasts

Ai Weiwei is under investigation for spreading pornography, the Chinese artist has said, as the authorities turned their attention from political subversion and tax evasion to online images of nudity.

He said police had questioned his cameraman Zhao Zhao on Thursday over pictures Zhao had taken of the artist. “They clearly told him this is an investigation, now, they are doing on me, on pornography,” Ai told the AFP news agency.

One of the pictures, One Tiger Eight Breasts, shows Ai posing nude on a wooden chair flanked by four naked women who are giggling and smiling.

“Netizens came to take photos with me, so we said why don’t we take nudity photos, then everybody agreed so we did it and they were put on the internet, and that’s it, we forget about it,” Ai said.

This year Ai has been held for 81 days in a secret location, questioned about subversion and then accused of tax evasion and given a fine of 15m yuan. Several of his assistants have been detained for lengthy periods and interrogated about Ai’s political beliefs, business and personal life.

His lawyers say the investigations are politically motivated to silence Ai, who has used his high profile to speak out on police brutality, official corruption and human rights violations.

Police have been reluctant to discuss his case and there has been little or no coverage in most domestic media outlets. But the Communist party newspaper Global Times said on Wednesday that dissidents such as Ai could only exist because of the support of the west.

“For 30 years Ai Weiweis have emerged and fallen. But China has kept rising despite their pessimistic predictions. The real social trend is that they will be eliminated in the rising process of China,” said a comment article in the paper.

Ai has attempted to turn the tables by mounting an internet campaign against his accusers. He says 30,000 people contributed a total of more than 8m yuan to his online appeal for loans to challenge his tax fine.

A pornography or obscenity charge based on the pictures revealed so far is likely to incur ridicule and anger among Ai’s supporters. Many Chinese contemporary artists have appeared naked in their work.

Ai said police had previously questioned him about the images, but he doubted they understood art. “If they see nudity as pornography, then China is still in the Qing dynasty,” he told Associated Press.

Ai Weiwei with EVEN MORE nudists. The CPCC and PLA need not fear this wall of human flesh led by a scruffy semi-geezer, fear is in the mind China!

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

This is not for everyone BUT, this is an acid test of human rights and civil society. Hey frumpOs, if you had the aesthetic, you’d be as sex positive and body confident enough to use nakeness and beauty as weapons to shame the ugliness of society and the establishment instead of attacking nudism and snarking on morality. So stop victimising naked persons, that counts for MALE body parts too . . . so about a decade ago there was this activist who really didn’t know why until now . . . WHOS STILL WRITING TO END APARTHEID . . . Nudism is COURAGE and PETA is not exactly at the level of anti-apartheid activity.

PETA Nudists.

Perhaps Nelson Mandela should visit Ai Weiwei and learn something missed, though this does not make for mainstream just yet but we early birds are the most well loved birds, so see Israeli women have taken a nude group photo to express solidarity with Aliaa Magda Elmahdy . . . and look at non-Muslims getting arrested for Khalwat in Muslim countries. Monyet dan Anjing! Hunga bunga! Bulaklak!

Ladies, if you’re a Lursa or a B’etor everyone will understand why the preference to stay covered is there, BUT no understanding will be offered to those who hate on all of the above people who dare to be nudist or go nude for their cause. Same to the narrow gents. What’s YOUR cause Frumpos? Snarking at people who try to change the world? Who try to end apartheid? Who challenge status quo?

Nudists Nuns in Russia marching against Putin’s 3rd term??? . . .

The more ‘faithful’ they are the more brittle the faith . . . hence the term ‘cracker’ . . . so go hide your daughters and get out your shotguns. (this is intended to remind those without 2nd amendment rights to know how good hillbillies live in the USA, no other reason . . . ). Aight back to surfing porn and drinking horse, pork and beef flavoured beer . . .

Nudists in Paris.

Israeli Nudists for St.Alia.

Pussy Riot – Russia.

Nudist Zones in China (at least zones exist . . .)

This is not a nudist gathering but rather an English advert.

So the next time someone is dressed like this, just keep that mouth shut. Bikini’s are skimpier and even if out of context, nudism is not even sexual activity per se. The clothes on this woman are actually kinda wholesome, even with the neons . . .

mini-ARTICLE 9.5

Woman Has Baby At Upstate New York Zoo : There was no time to get the expectant mother to hospital after she suddenly went into labour on Friday. – 8:33pm UK, Saturday 08 December 2012 – Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York

A New York state zoo has had a surprise visit – from the stork.

A woman went into labour on Friday and gave birth on a path at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse.

The 21-year-old woman, who was visiting the zoo with a group, had a baby girl with help from keepers not far from the bear exhibit.

Zoo worker Liz Schmidt told The Post-Standard that she heard about the situation and rushed to find the woman already pushing out the baby.

“I honestly didn’t expect her to deliver at the zoo,” Ms Schmidt said. “I thought we’d pop her in a wheelchair and she’d be good to go to the hospital.”

Other workers arrived with blankets to keep the mother and baby warm, and the zoo’s elephant expert herded away curious visitors.

An ambulance soon arrived to take the newborn to a hospital. A hospital representative declined to discuss the mother or baby’s medical conditions for privacy reasons.

Zoo Director Ted Fox said the attraction plans to send a gift to the family.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Nice . . . so Penang gets another beast among their ranks what was being snatched? Zoo animals conceiving? Now we understand why cheaters never prosper and why (some) Asians REALLY do not have Human Souls. That which is not one’s may never belong by theft or strength in numbers, more so on the spiritual level. How about another invasion of the 3rd world before the pariahs get too strong. Those who play by the rules need not worry, by now most of the ‘invaders’ should be able to identify the whos who among pariahs and among the rich and politically connected are plenty of pariahs.

Dmitry Medvedev has been caught making some unusual comments off-air after failing to realise television cameras were still rolling.

The Russian prime minister let his guard down after an interview with five Russian television stations – offering his strange views on Father Christmas and aliens as well as taking a pot shot at President Vladimir Putin and the federal police.

“I believe in Father Frost. But not too deeply. But anyway, you know, I’m not one of those people who are able to tell the kids that Father Frost does not exist,” he said in a jovial reply to a question about Russia’s equivalent of Santa Claus.

He went on to take a jab at Mr Putin for his frequent lateness for meetings after he was more than hour late for an event in southern Russia.

“Colleagues, somebody should be extremely punctual, while somebody else is exhausting all the limits for being late,” he said.

The comments invited a satirical reaction on the Internet which is unlikely to help Mr Medvedev, whose power has been ebbing since Mr Putin took over as president.
RUSSIA-GOVERNMENT-POLITICS-MEDVEDEV The prime minister speaking to the TV stations that caught him off-air

In the interview itself, Mr Medvedev underlined his allegiance to the president in a likely bid to dismiss rumours he is about to be fired.

In an unexpected move, the liberal-leaning prime minister defended Kremlin-backed laws which critics say will be used to stifle dissent.

But in the off-air comments, he was more frank.

When a journalist complained about federal investigators arriving to search the home of a witness in an inquiry early in the morning, Mr Medvedev said: “They are just jerks, so they come at eight in the morning.

“It’s just their set of habits. I know many people who work in the police. They think if they come at seven in the morning they will get everything in the world.”

Another of the journalists asked whether the president is handed secret files on aliens when he receives the briefcase needed to activate Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

“Along with the briefcase with nuclear codes, the president of the country is given a special ‘top secret’ folder. This folder in its entirety contains information about aliens who visited our planet,” Mr Medvedev answered playfully.

“Along with this, you are given a report of the absolutely secret special service that exercises control over aliens on the territory of our country…

“More detailed information on this topic you can get from a well-known movie called Men In Black… I will not tell you how many of them are among us because it may cause panic,” he said.

None of the television stations that interviewed Medvedev broadcast the off-air comments.

Russians mocked the prime minister on the internet.

“It’s sad when the former president and current prime minister of your country is simply a pathetic person,” Yekaterina Kudinova wrote on Twitter.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Not strange at all but with the kind of Russian subtlty that bore Russia a Marx. Medvedev has a OCCULT (or Techno advanced derived) CONSCIENCE which could be tranlated into OCCULT (or Techno advanced derived) ETHICS which can translate into (or Techno advanced derived) MORALLY AFFLUENT LAWS. This is my strange response to Medvedev’s strange off air comments. Expositions on methodology will lead to spiritual cleanliness and less hive mindedness and less mob mindedness, these many headed “non-individuals” Medvedev is referring to are the true criminals of Humanity that need to have the worst happen to them.

A one-on-one between exes is not the same as mass parasitisation, and we all know where spiritual parasites are going, those who do not produce and only take, as “Useless Eaters” are bound for the Auswictzs’ of the future (and past). In other words, do your own work or (spiritual homework) and choose your fights carefully and with respect, millions of spirits will be seeking their payment for their untimely deaths and that will be the ‘hell’ everyone keeps talking about . . . vote Medevedev for the next Sec. Gen. of the UN and we might see a better world if Medevedev applies entirely such principles within the SPIRITUAL update of the UN Human Rights Charter. Here’s one for the morally affluent non-cops and non-parasites . . . lets shine a light on all degenerates who won’t even think for themselves . . .

MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — No government agency is taking action to remove the decaying carcass of a whale on a California beach, making it appear the job will be left to Mother Nature.

The corpse of the huge fin whale created a spectacle on Friday as people wandered down the narrow Malibu beach to look at the remains — white bones, rolls of blubber and the tail flukes trailing along the water’s edge.

The homes of movie stars, celebrities and others line the cliffs high above the slender beach.

Looking over the whale, Malibu resident Ben Dossett suggested there was now no need to try to remove it.

“You look at the difference between what it was on Tuesday to what it is today. I think they can just leave it and let nature take its course,” he said.

The smell had largely faded away, but still attached to the shoes of those who came near. Some people took pictures, a boy poked the bones and dogs sniffed it.

“It’s really sad that this is my first time seeing a whale,” said Ingrid De La O, a Malibu resident. “It’s mind-boggling to see this immense huge thing that lives in the water.”

The 40-foot-long, 40,000-pound juvenile male washed ashore Monday near Point Dume, which marks the western end of Santa Monica Bay, about 30 miles west of downtown Los Angeles.

“From the evidence that we have so far, it appears that it was hit by a ship,” said Jonsie Ross, marine mammal coordinator for the California Wildlife Center.

James Respondek, a real estate agent who lives in the area, worried that the carcass would draw sharks that could pose a threat to his young daughter, who swims in the cove, and to his favorite surfing spot down the beach. He said he was frustrated that no agency would remove the carcass.

“There seems to be no readiness to take responsibility, to take action, just a lot of excuses. ‘I don’t have a boat, I don’t have the money, I don’t have the resources,’ they all told me,” he said.

Fin whales are endangered, and about 2,300 live along the West Coast. They’re the second-largest species of whale after blue whales and can grow up to 85 feet, weigh up to 80 tons and live to be 90 years old.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Austerity leads to political caution? Cost saving and avoiding use of crony contractors (in this case whale cleaning crews companies which the government cleverly decided not to pay with taxpayer funds by, or where the links were so obvious they did not want to expose their political flank for) is good for the taxpayers and respect of tax fund access, and who knows a clever reference to Kim Schmidt that MSM should play on . . . the cleanup might cost a few thousand which could go to the starving or homeless, instead of a crony company. The local bars could take a look at the below article btw, a potential money making and indirect clean up courtesy of the local oceanside bars, though killings of mostly endangered whales intentionally by ship owners should be very carefully watched for . . .

Owen Roberts was an Oxford graduate, a man of dazzling intellect and gentle wit, who met Ann when they were both young broadcast journalists

Ann Clwyd had presumed that when her husband was admitted to a flagship teaching hospital, the staff charged with caring for him would do just that. It was not an outrageous assumption.

She did not imagine that he would die ‘like a battery hen’, squashed against the bars of his bed.

She did not anticipate that he would deteriorate catastrophically because, she feels, those entrusted to look after him were guilty of ‘indifference, contempt and callousness’.

She had expected that her gentle and genial husband, Owen Roberts, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, would be accorded care and kindness.

Instead, six weeks ago, he died, aged 73, of pneumonia he had contracted while at the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, as she sat helpless at his side.

This week, Ann, 75, the Labour MP for Cynon Valley, and a redoubtable campaigner for the rights of the oppressed, steeled herself to make her private grief public.

She did so not for political aggrandisement but to try to spare others similar suffering.

Ann spoke out shortly after Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted that poor standards of care are one of the biggest problems facing the NHS; that in the worst cases, hospital staff are overseeing ‘a kind of normalisation of cruelty’.

And she wept in the House of Commons this week when she asked the Prime Minister what he intended to do about nurses who fail to show compassion for their patients.

When I met her in her parliamentary office later, she was composed and softly-spoken. Occasionally her eyes blurred with tears, but aside from grief, the emotion that overwhelms her is a quiet, simmering fury.

‘I felt it in the hospital,’ she says. ‘I can’t really remember what happened immediately after Owen died — it’s a blur — but I do remember my anger. Owen did not die from MS. He died from hospital-acquired pneumonia, and from lack of care and attention.

‘I’m still angry, and the anger gets fiercer. I think at one point I felt I’d like to burn down the hospital.

‘I know that people meet in rooms and discuss things and promise it will never happen again. But you know very well that it does. Again and again.

‘Owen was a tall man, 6ft 2in, and he died cramped and squashed against the bars of his bed like a battery hen. He had an oxygen mask that didn’t fit properly and cut into his chin. When I asked for a better fitting one, they said, “Oh, we don’t think so”.

Almost every request I made was ignored or dismissed. His lips were very dry and I couldn’t understand why nobody was moistening them. I used my own lip salve on them.

‘I saw a nurse in the corridor and asked her why my husband wasn’t in intensive care. She just said, “There are lots worse than him”, and walked on.

‘Previously, I had asked another nurse if a doctor had seen him that day, and she said: “No, but we know what to do.”

To me, that meant “We’ll do nothing”. It was almost as if someone, somewhere, had decided they weren’t going to do anything more for Owen, although he was obviously very ill.
Six weeks ago, Owen Roberts died, aged 73, of pneumonia he had contracted while at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, pictured

Six weeks ago, Owen Roberts died, aged 73, of pneumonia he had contracted while at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, pictured

‘He was very cold, because a patient in the next bed had a fan that was blowing cold air over him and Owen had only thin cotton blankets on his bed.

‘There was no one observing him. You ask yourself: “Where is everyone? Where are the nurses? Why is no one doing anything?”

‘You kick yourself that you didn’t stand in the corridor and scream, but when you’re an MP, you’re concerned about throwing your weight around. And you think, “I’m in a specialist hospital, with people who’ve been professionally trained” — and you assume they know what they’re doing.

‘But a basic element of good care was missing: compassion.

‘Owen lived with great dignity and fortitude, but when he died, he was treated with contempt. And I believe the fact that the nurses and doctors failed in their duty of care contributed to his death.’

Owen Roberts was an Oxford graduate, a man of dazzling intellect and gentle wit, who met Ann when they were both young broadcast journalists. He went on to become a distinguished director and producer on Welsh television.

They had no children and Ann entered politics — and became MP for her Welsh constituency in 1984. She later became Tony Blair’s special envoy on human rights in Iraq.

When Owen died in October, they had been married for 49 years.
Ann Clwyd was the UK special envoy for Human Rights in Iraq from 2003 to 2010. She is pictured during a visit to the Welsh Guards in Iraq

For 30 years he had suffered from MS, but had borne adversity with courage. Two years ago, in 2010, he fractured his leg in a fall and had a partial hip replacement, which left him confined to a wheelchair. But he lived at home in South Wales with Ann, who combined her parliamentary duties with looking after him.

He was ‘spirited, aware and intellectually curious’ and had enjoyed a visit from an old friend, an Oxford professor, just days before he collapsed on October 10 and was taken to hospital by ambulance.

At the hospital, Owen was allocated a bed in an open area of the A&E department, near the nurses’ station. Ann was told he would be kept in for observation, but she did not want to leave him until she had established that he would be sent to a ward.

She recalls: ‘Every time I tried to talk to one of the nurses, they were either on the phone or talking to one another. I know they were busy, but it did not explain how they could completely ignore a patient.

‘Whenever I asked when we’d see someone, the answer was always: “In a minute.” There was busy-ness, laughter, joking?…?but nobody addressed our concerns.

‘A doctor arrived with a tick list. He was brusque, arrogant and rude — he didn’t even introduce himself. When I asked, “What’s your name?”, he looked at me as if I’d said something impertinent. After he’d asked his questions, he just went off.

‘All this time, I hadn’t been offered a chair or a word of explanation. I’d expected at least some reassurance. But it was as if the nurses were in their little world. There was a feeling of total isolation’

Faced with this, Ann sent a text message to her PA, begging her to ask for help on her behalf.

Two-and-a-half hours later, a doctor arrived and assured her that Owen would be sent to a respiratory ward. Ann duly went home — but 24 hours later, her husband was still in A&E.

Meanwhile, Ann became ill herself, with a chest infection, and was unable to visit her husband — who’d now, finally, been transferred to a ward — for fear of infecting him and other patients.

Instead, friends and family popped in every day and she sought reports on his condition by phone. Often, she was thwarted. ‘I’d be told his nurse wasn’t there, or was on a tea break. I asked to speak to him on the phone, but they told me it was a facility they didn’t offer.’
The MP wept in the House of Commons this week when she asked the Prime Minister what he intended to do about nurses who fail to show compassion for their patients

The MP wept in the House of Commons this week when she asked the Prime Minister what he intended to do about nurses who fail to show compassion for their patients

Owen was diagnosed with sleep apnoea, a treatable disorder characterised by abnormal pauses in breathing during sleep. He was, Ann was told, to be given a mask to wear at night to help regularise his breathing. It never materialised.

However, she spoke on the phone to a staff nurse, who offered a hopeful and cheering prognosis, predicting that Owen should be able to return home the following week.

The next day, however, Ann had a call from a consultant, telling her that he was very worried. “We think he’s got pneumonia,” he said.

‘I was stunned; panicked. I rushed in with my niece, and they told me he was not responding to antibiotics.’ Owen’s condition deteriorated sharply. Ann recalls the eight hours she spent at his bedside on the day before he died, on October 23.

‘I took in a catalogue of shirts and ties that had arrived in the post because he loved colourful ties and I thought he’d find it a bit of a joke. I showed it to him and he said, in Welsh, “Tomorrow”. It was the last word he said to me.’

‘I sat by his bed and he was breathing with his oxygen mask on. One of his eyes was inflamed and watering, so I asked for a nurse to wipe it. But no one came. So I got a tissue from my bag.

‘I sat at his bedside from 2.30pm until 10.30pm and, as far as I recall, no one said anything to us. No one asked me if I wanted a cup of tea. It was as if I was invisible.

‘There was one ward round, and I stood in a corridor while they pulled the curtains around Owen’s bed. They were gone in a flash, and I’ve no idea what went on.

‘I tried to reassure him, so that he didn’t feel abandoned. He was very cold — as he had been all the time he was in hospital. I put red socks on him — he always liked red socks — and I sat and held his hand.’

When Ann returned home, she texted a friend: ‘No doctor has been since this morning. Very few nurses around either. Not very happy with the set-up.’ That night, she slept fitfully for a few hours, and was called back to the hospital at 5?am.

‘I was in a state of shock. I got dressed very quickly and put on a red coat that Owen loved.

‘My neighbour Geraldine came with me, and when we got there and found Owen’s knee squashed against the side bars of the bed. We pushed a pillow in between to make him more comfortable. His feet were sticking out of the end of the bed and he was cold. Geraldine got a towel and put it over his feet.

‘I’d once got a bill through parliament to improve the welfare of battery hens, and I remember thinking he looked so cramped and squashed he was just like one.

‘I just sat there and stroked his arm. I was afraid to do anything — but I was in a university teaching hospital and I thought they must know what they were doing.

‘It was all a bit of a haze, but I remember thinking: “Why aren’t they doing anything?” I tried to say encouraging words. I wanted to reassure him, to let him know that I was there.

‘I’d never seen anyone die before, but when I saw the blood draining from Owen’s face, I just knew that he was dead.
As Ann’s husband died, there was a sudden flurry of activity. ‘People rushed in, tore his mask off – but it was too little too late. And I suspect it had been for some time’

As Ann’s husband died, there was a sudden flurry of activity. ‘People rushed in, tore his mask off – but it was too little too late. And I suspect it had been for some time’

‘Just at that moment, a nurse came in with a trolley crying out: “Anyone for breakfast?” It was only a four-bed ward, and she showed indifference bordering on callousness. It was, for me, a very emotionally draining time — and I believe care and dignity were not there. Owen was treated with contempt.’

As Ann’s husband died, there was a sudden flurry of activity. ‘People rushed in, tore his mask off — but it was too little too late. And I suspect it had been for some time.’

A few days after her husband’s funeral, Ann returned to work. Friends had told her that work was the best therapy — but six weeks on, sleep eludes her.

For her, solace comes in the form of campaigning so that others do not suffer as her husband did. ‘This is why I’ve forced myself to speak out. I’ve had hundreds of supportive emails, and one retired GP wrote: “I felt ashamed of my profession and I cried at your distress.”

‘I don’t want any redress for myself, but I want to start a campaign. I just want to flag up the lack of compassion.

‘We all know nurses work under huge pressure, but so many now have degrees, and it seems to me there is more interest in their qualifications than in the qualities they should show to their patients.

‘Care, compassion, concern: this is what is needed. This is the message I want to get across.’

Mr Adam Cairns, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board Chief Executive, said he was keen to meet with Ms Clwyd.

‘I would, of course, like to offer my sincere condolences to Ms Clwyd on the loss of her husband. I have been very concerned to learn of her experiences but, unfortunately, to date, and despite repeated efforts, Ms Clwyd has not responded to our offers to meet with her.

‘As a health board, we always accept responsibility when things don’t go well, which is why we really need Ms Clwyd to help us get to the bottom of what happened in the case of her late husband and to allow us to investigate fully the very serious concerns she has raised.

‘I’ve asked for a review of the case to be undertaken, a process which would be much improved by having information first-hand of the circumstances surrounding this case.’

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Any person can be a nurse without the degree after an informal internship. Somehow, working so hard and saving so much for a degree sucks the very compassion and humanity necessary to be a good nurse and a good citizen. Modern education is EVIL but in a very subtle way. Thats another reason to avoid those who swear by education, especially HIGHER EDUCATION. I had a dozen or so friends that ‘died’ (dehumanized to point of non-viability as friends) after getting educations.

They never seemed the same. As for hospitals, I’d say that my parents who had some reason to be interred, ALSO ‘died’ and became ‘different’ after their stays. Education and healthcare, even working on a salary in general somehow fracture the souls of those they come into contact with or those working at such places. Try talking to people with less education and compare, while the conversations are mostly less interesting or more limited, the sense of humanity is more intact. There might be some sort of ‘contract’ that the spirit seems to be affected by when using such institutions, not easy to place this occult sort of thing, but most of society excepting the people denouncing or untouched by the overall system make for a very difficult case to put forth, yet we still try and the closing thing to a key I’d say is to study Socialism and Marxism FIRST before getting into the Capitalist and Consumerist world. That is all I can offer to those who are afflicted with what I just described. Modern society is a spiritual sickness of sorts. That and high density living which fosters hive minds ad mob mindedness . . . the other thing that changes a person’s objectivity and ‘true self’, is marriage and family, but that will be for another response . . .

“Jurong Rock Cavern, South-east Asia’s first underground rock cavern for oil storage, with its two access shafts almost completed, will begin its first phase of proper construction at year end, with the first two caverns providing 480,000 cu meters of storage. JRC is located more than 100 meters below Jurong Island’s Banyan Basin and it will provide safe and secure storage for liquid hydrocarbons such as crude oil, condensate, naphtha and gasoil. Locating the JRC just beneath Jurong Island will add more infrastructural support to the major chemical companies operating there such as Chevron Philips, ExxonMobil and Shell. Phase 1 of the project will free up about 60ha of usable land above ground and it will create 1.47 million cu metres of storage space, equivalent to 580 Olympic-sized pools, when completed by 2014. The cavern itself will be up to 27 m high – equivalent to a nine-storey building. This first phase will consist of 8km of tunnels and five caverns housing a total of nine storage galleries. The caverns will be built using a technique that drills and blasts sedimentary rock and for greater stability, the inner wall will be lined with rock bolts. A planned phase 2 of the project will double JRC’s storage capacity. GK-JCPL Consortium, a Jurong International partnership with French engineering firm Geostock, has previously been awarded the contract to in providing basic engineering design and construction management services for the caverns and associated facilities. Jurong International is also previously responsible for many of the heavy infrastructure and engineering projects associated with Jurong Island including its initial formation via reclamation and amalgamation of seven islands.”

Why we need such a deep storage in granite…300 feet below the surface? Just hoping its not for nuclear plant or weapons storage.

Hyundai clinches $890m Jurong Rock Cavern contract – by RONNIE LIM

CONSTRUCTION proper of Singapore’s underground oil storage project is finally set to start with South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction clinching the main $890 million ‘design and build’ contract this week from JTC Corporation.

Actual building under this contract, for the first phase of Jurong Rock Cavern (JRC), begins at year- end, with the first two caverns providing 480,000 cubic metres of oil storage when ready in the first half of 2013.

The entire phase one, comprising five caverns, will offer a total of 1.47 million cu m when completed by 2014.

This will make the JRC slightly larger than the $470 million, 1.24 million cu m tankfarm of Horizon Terminals, but about two- thirds that of Hin Leong Trading’s $750 million, 2.3 million cu m Universal Terminal – Asia’s largest commercial storage.

The project had earlier run into some delays, although Senior Minister of State for Trade & Industry S Iswaran last month gave the assurance that Singapore was committed to the JRC which would help alleviate the land shortage on Jurong Island.

Investors have not been able to get land there to build more above-ground oil terminals needed by oil refiners and traders to store their oil and petrochemical products.

So despite being behind schedule and slightly above cost, the JRC will provide necessary infrastructure for Singapore’s oil hub, especially once the rebound comes.

The cost for phase one of JRC – being built under Banyan Basin – has run up by about one-third to $940 million from an earlier estimate of $700 million.

This includes the $50 million for two access shafts and start-up galleries – which are almost completed – to facilitate construction.

The chosen operator of the JRC – earlier expected to be announced at the same time as the main construction award – will, however, only be made known by mid-year, JTC officials indicated yesterday.

Existing terminal operators here such as Royal Vopak of Holland and Emirates National Oil Company are known to be vying for this.

The main construction award came 11/2 years after the tender was first called by JTC in late-2007.

Asked why it took that long, given that there were only two bidders (the other being South Korea’s SK Engineering), the spokesman explained that ‘it’s a huge tender which involved a lot of detailed work and is very complex’.

The work is being done 130m below the seabed, and Hyundai – which has experience with such projects in Taiwan and Korea – has to carry out ‘drill and blast’ excavation using explosives, he added.

The entire phase one will involve eight kilometres of tunnels, with five caverns made up of two storage galleries, with each gallery being 340m long, 20m wide and 27m high. (About nine-storeys high, each gallery is large enough to contain water from over 64 Olympic-sized pools).

‘The water pressure will keep the oil contained within the generally unlined rock caves,’ the spokesman said.

The higher project cost arose due to improvements made to the cavern designs to enhance operational flexibility, he explained.

A planned phase two of the JRC could add a further 1.3 million cu m of storage, doubling its capacity.

Asked if this could cost more than phase one, the spokesman said that ‘the complexity is similar, so it depends on the timing (of when the project is done)’.

I have a sneaky feeling its for something nuclear. It was mentioned before by our MIWs that Singapore may go nuclear in the future. Since when they tell u the truth about anything until TOO LATE or that we manage to ‘DIG’ things up trawling the internet. I have a real sneaky feeling about this ‘cavern’. Anyone have a map where this 8km cavern is located precisely? Dont want to live above it just in case. It’s in Jurong but where EXACTLY? “You can fool some of the people some of the time….BUT, you cannot fool ALL the people ALL of the time…

WHICH PARTY’S SLOGAN IS……We Aim To Fool The Majority All The Time?”

Re: Jurong Rock Cavern To Store What? Scary Thought…Nuclear Plant?

Quote Originally Posted by red amoeba View Post

the location for sure will be top secret. No lah, the big lobang is for oil. For weapons or ammo, it would be somewhere else. Instead of hving thse giantic tanks like big targets for terrorist, safer to store them underground. The MIWs have been telling too many lies that its hard to believe them anymore. Even if for oil, there must be air-vents to the surface. i like to know where these air vents are so as not to visit the area too frequently. These air vents should be spewing out invisible chemicals “You can fool some of the people some of the time….BUT, you cannot fool ALL the people ALL of the time…

WHICH PARTY’S SLOGAN IS……We Aim To Fool The Majority All The Time?”

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Kiasu at the taxpayer’s expense? MM 4 million+ yearly, SM 4 million+ yearly, ON TOP of the President and Prime Minister’s posts . . . which 99% of Singaporeans said those salaries were legal? Obama earns 400K a year and USA is 1000s of times more than Singapore? Meritocracy or Institutionalized/Legalized Corruption?

ARTICLE 14

China to flatten 700 mountains for new metropolis in the desert – Lanzhou new area plan to begin with ‘mountain-moving project’, but financial and environmental wisdom of project questioned – Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing – guardian.co.uk, Thursday 6 December 2012 17.48 GMT

A long, long time ago, an old Chinese peasant named Yu Gong decided to move two inconveniently located mountains away from blocking the entrance to his home. Legend has it he struggled terribly, but ultimately succeeded. Hence the Chinese idiom “Yu Gong moves the mountains.” Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Now Chinese developers are putting old Yu to shame.

In what is being billed as the largest “mountain-moving project” in Chinese history, oneof China’s biggest construction firms will spend £2.2bn to flatten 700 mountains levelling the area Lanzhou, allowing developers to build a new metropolis on the outskirts of the north-western city.

The Lanzhou New Area, 500 square miles (130,000 hectares) of land 50 miles from the city, which is the provincial capital of arid Gansu province, could increase the region’s gross domestic product to £27bn by 2030, according to the state-run China Daily. It has already attracted almost £7bn of corporate investment.

The project will be China’s fifth “state-level development zone” and the first in the country’s rapidly developing interior, according to state media reports. Others include Shanghai’s Pudong and Tianjin’s Binhai, home to a half-built, 120-building replica of Manhattan. China’s state council, its highest administrative authority, approved the Lanzhou project in August.

The first stage of the mountain-flattening initiative, which was reported on Tuesday by the China Economic Weekly magazine, began in late October and will eventually enable a new urban district almost 10 square miles in size northeast of downtown Lanzhou – a small, but important part of the Lanzhou Nnew area project to be built.

One of the country’s largest private companies: the Nanjing-based China Pacific Construction Group, headed by Yan Jiehe, is behind the initiative. The 52-year-old former teacher is portrayed in China as a sort of home-grown Donald Trump – ultra-ambitious and preternaturally gifted at navigating the country’s vast network of “guanxi”, or personal connections.

Yan was born in the 1960s as the youngest of nine children. After a decade of working as a high-school teacher and cement plant employee, he founded his construction firm in 1995 and amassed a fortune by buying and revamping struggling state-owned enterprises. In 2006 the respected Hu Run report named Yan – then worth about £775m – as China’s second-richest man.

His latest plan has evoked a healthy dose of scepticism. Lanzhou, home to 3.6 million people alongside the silty Yellow River, already has major environmental concerns. Last year the World Health Organisation named it the city with the worst air pollution in China. The city’s main industries include textiles, fertiliser production and metallurgy.

Liu Fuyuan, a former high-level official at the country’s National Development and Reform Commission, told China Economic Weekly that the project was unsuitable because Lanzhou is frequently listed as among China’s most chronically water-scarce municipalities. “The most important thing is to gather people in places where there is water,” he said.

Others also pointed to the financial risk of building a new city in the middle of the desert. “All this investment needs to be paid back with residential land revenue, and I don’t see much on returns in these kinds of cities,” said Tao Ran, an economics professor at Renmin University in Beijing. “If you have a booming real estate market it might work, but it seems to me that real estate in China is very, very risky.”

In an email interview, a China Pacific Construction Group spokeswoman dismissed criticisms of the project as unjustified. “Lanzhou’s environment is already really poor, it’s all desolate mountains which are extremely short of water,” said Angie Wong. “Our protective style of development will divert water to the area, achieve reforestation and make things better than before.”

Yan’s plans could be considered “a protective style of development, and a developmental style of protection”, she said, adding: “I think whether it’s England or America, or any other country, no one will cease development because of resource scarcity caused by geography.”

A promotional video posted on the Lanzhou new area website shows a digitally-rendered cityscape of gleaming skyscrapers and leafy parks. Against a driving operatic score, the camera zooms out from a large government building to reveal features of the area’s imagined urban topography: a clock tower, a new airport, an oil refinery, a light-rail system, and a stadium packed with cheering fans.

The new area “will lead to an environmentally sustainable economy based on energy-saving industries” including advanced equipment manufacturing, petrochemical industries and modern agriculture, wrote Chinese Central Television on its website.

The Lanzhou city government could not be reached for comment.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

There is no such thing as ‘real estate’, this has tremendous occult significance instead. Note the location and surrounding quake zones. This is a fengshui confluence city that looks set to be filled with life energy if not mistaken or even able to somehow harness the energy at the safe point. Concept of money and real estate is a farce btw. Save for allodial titles backed by force of arms, real goods and real labour/services, or the whimsical entertainments of the RLD, OPZ or Casino city, there is nothing on this planet but evil politicians term limitless and nepotistic, along with plutocrats (those who are BOTH politician and plutocrat are the worst) that sequester wealth and pollute the environment.

European Commission letter to House of Lords says Scotland’s membership will ‘cease to apply’ if it breaks away from the UK / Spanish government would block entry, fearing it would embolden Catalonian separatists

Brussels will refuse to let Scotland automatically join the European Union if voters back Alex Salmond’s plans for independence, it emerged today.

Officials at the European Commission have revealed Scotland’s EU membership will ‘cease to apply’ if it is no longer part of the UK.

The Spanish government has made clear it would ‘veto’ any attempt by Scotland to join.

It is a major blow to claims made by Mr Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, that Scotland would automatically continue to be in the Euro bloc.

He was ridiculed after claiming in a TV interview that he had obtained legal advice on EU membership but it had to remain secret. He later admitted no advice had been sought.

Now it has emerged that a letter sent to a House of Lords committee warns that that independence ‘would not have a neutral impact’.

Scotland would become a ‘third country’ – outside the EU and have to apply to join the 27-member union, the European Commission told the Lords economic affairs committee.

‘If a territory of a member state ceases to be part of that member state because it has become an independent state then the treaties would cease to apply to that territory,’ according to the letter reported by The Scotsman.

If Scotland did lodge an application it would need to ‘fulfil the usual obligations’ and be ‘accepted unanimously by the members of the council [member states]’.

In a recent debate, Lib Dem Lord Wallace revealed the UK government was clear that any attempt for Scotland to join the EU would meet with difficulties.

‘On the question of Catalonia and Spain, it is entirely clear that the Spanish Government are opposed to any idea of secession and would be likely to veto a Scottish application to join the European Union under current circumstances.

There have been exchanges between the Spanish Government and the European Commission on this exact issue.’

The Spanish government fears that if an independent Scotland gained membership it would bolster calls for Catalonian independence.

It directly contradicts claims made by Mr Salmond’s SNP, who have repeatedly suggested Scotland would automatically join the EU as a new state.
The Scottish independence referendum is being held in autumn 2014, when Mr Salmond hopes to capitalise on a patriotic mood marking 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn

The Scottish independence referendum is being held in autumn 2014, when Mr Salmond hopes to capitalise on a patriotic mood marking 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn

SNP MP Pete Wishart told the Commons last month: ‘Scotland is a constituent part of the United Kingdom. We are currently a member of the European Union. After independence, we will continue to be a member of the European Union.’

But Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire told the same debate that ‘everything would change’ if Scots vote to go it alone in the referendum due in autumn 2014.

An independent Scotland would not automatically be a member of the EU and would have to ‘start afresh’, he added.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: ‘Immediately following a Yes vote in Autumn 2014, Scotland will still be part of the UK. Negotiations will then take place on the transfer of powers from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament along with negotiations on the specific terms of an independent Scotland’s continued membership of the European Union.

‘Ministers have always been clear that these negotiations will be needed – but the crucial point is that they will take place from within the EU.

‘Scotland has been an integral part of the European Union for almost four decades and an independent Scotland will continue in EU membership. As legal, constitutional and European experts have confirmed, Scotland is part of the territory of the European Union and the people of Scotland are citizens of the EU, and there is no provision for those circumstances to change upon independence.’

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

I wouldn’t worry if I were Salmond or Scotland. When Scotland becomes a sovereign state and possibly banking or hub for BRICS, Brussels will change their tone to the effect that automatic joining will be forestalled by going through the motions of ‘starting afresh’. This is terribly manipulative but a face saving necessity.

Scotland presents a great opportunity for BRICS by being sidelined in this manner by EU. BRICS well needs a friendly point to the EU by and if the EU has decided to distance from Scotland then BRICS would certainly find Scotland that much more attractive, not that EU and BRICS are in any spat that Scotland is already not aware of. UN can even drop Scotland, but so long as BRICS is around the multipolar world will balance things out.

An independent Scotland would not automatically be a member of the EU and would have to ‘start afresh’, he added. Well thats just pretentious. And if by some impossibility that Scotland fails to join EU, the BRICS will be very happy to have a new member EVEN IF Scotland becomes the North Korea of the EU. Like a trust fund under guardianship and insulting as hell to Scotland to the tune of a deflated bagpipe gasping a sour note of contrived control. I’m not Scottish but already feel offended on the Scots’ behalf. Incidentally, try the CGI “Brave”, the settings make the Scots into a circus, main characters are ‘fractured’ as hell and an unhealthy role model . . .

Sometimes a highly individualistic name for a baby is not good news for a kid, says Dean Obeidallah

Editor’s note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is a political comedian and frequent commentator on various TV networks including CNN. He is the editor of the politics blog “The Dean’s Report” and co-director of the upcoming documentary “The Muslims Are Coming!” Follow him on Twitter: @deanofcomedy

(CNN) — Siri, Mars, Mac and Luna. I’m not talking Apple products or planetary terms. These are baby names. And not just any baby names but ones that have jumped in popularity in 2012, according to Baby Center.com’s just released list.

Baby Siri? Seriously, who would name their bundle of joy after a frustrating Apple product that hardly ever works? And speaking of Apple (see daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin,) that name moved up a whopping 585 places on the list of names for girls born in 2012. So there could conceivably be a family out there with a daughter named Apple and a son named Siri. (Hope that entitles the family to a discount on an iMac.)

There was a time when bizarre baby naming was something only celebrities did to their kids (as if being the child of a celebrity wasn’t challenging enough). There’s Beyonce and Jay Z’s Blue Ivy, Penn Jillette’s son, Moxie Crimefighter, Bono’s daughter Memphis Eve, actor Jason Lee’s son Pilot Inspektor, and the list goes on and on.
Dean Obeidallah

But now this “condition” is apparently spreading to the rest of us. In addition to the offbeat names above, 2011 saw babies sporting such names as: Moo, Draper, Graceland and Tequila.

There are even media reports that this past weekend some parents allegedly named their newborn daughter, Hashtag. That one may turn out to be an Internet hoax, but after last year’s story of a child in Egypt being named Facebook (in praise of the role Facebook played in the Egyptian revolution), we can’t be too far from babies named Retweet and Spam Blocker anyway. It truly is only a matter of time until you meet a kid named DVR or Playstation 3.
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Apparently some parents believe that giving their child a jaw-dropping name will make him or her more distinctive. News flash: it’s not the name that makes your child stand out, it’s his or her achievements.

While I don’t want to rain on creativity, let’s be honest — these weird names are more about parents showing off their “cleverness” than about finding a name that fits the child. It’s not like the parents got to know the child first for a few months and then said, “You know this baby really is a little Siri.”
Beyonce, Jay-Z welcome baby Blue Ivy
Jolie: We are all Malala

And do these parents even consider that a baby’s name can cause consequences for the child that the parents never imagined, and in many areas of the child’s life? When I reflect upon my own name, I realize that my life could have been far different if my parents had followed their initial instincts when naming me.

My Palestinian father wanted to name me Saladin after the famous Muslim leader, while my Sicilian mother wanted to name me Dino. Instead they compromised on Dean.

Growing up in North Jersey, Dean was not a common name. But it actually made me feel different in a good way being the only Dean in my class. And even today in looking at the list of baby names for 2012, I was actually happy that Dean was not in the top 100.

Still, the truth is, if I’d been named Dino, I would have certainly been viewed as more ethnic by teachers, potential employers and co-workers. I would have been required to continually overcome cultural stereotypes.

And if I’d been named the very Arabic Saladin Obeidallah, you could just imagine all the “fun” I would have had in post-9/11 America. I would have likely volunteered for “random” security checks at the airport to make it easier for all involved or simply got used to taking the bus cross country.

But there’s a difference between a name that isn’t overly common and naming your child after your favorite appliance. A name is a big part of a kid’s identity. It can trigger impressions about a child even before we meet him or her — a particular problem among the closed-minded of the world, but this is the world your child will have to navigate.

For example, studies have found that children with names that linguistically sound like they come from a lower socioeconomic status are less likely to be recommended by school officials for gifted classes and actually more likely to be labeled as learning disabled.

Other research has revealed that boys with feminine sounding names — such as Shannon or Ashley — have had more disciplinary problems in school because of their response to teasing. Still other studies have found a link between how much people like their own names and their level of self-esteem.

So, parents, keep in mind that your choice of name will have a lasting impact on your child — both for good and bad. And if you insist on picking a bizarre name for the baby, then I propose that your child be empowered to rename you with any name he or she chooses. At least then it’s fair that a child named Hashtag has parents named Angry Birds and YouTube.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

In the past there were in some cultures NAMING CEREMONIES AT ADULTHOOD. The child would choose a name LATER, and all children knew their names when young were TEMPORARY and that parents chose those names. Sometimes what the child did that was most unique would also decide what that child was RENAMED at adulthood. So ‘Hashtag’ away and legalise/normalise name changing at the age of 21. Knowing that names are temporary and chosen by parents, kids would not be affected by teasing because they knew they were going to change that name, or the teasers would not bother to tease knowing the name would also change by then.

An anti right-to-work protester is seen outside of Michigan’s state capitol building in Lansing December 11, 2012. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

(Reuters) – Michigan enacted a ban on mandatory union membership on Tuesday, dealing a stunning blow to organized labor in the state that is home to U.S. automakers and the symbol of industrial labor in the United States.

As more than 12,000 unionized workers and supporters protested at the Capitol in Lansing, the Republican-led state House of Representatives gave final approval to a pair of “right-to-work” bills covering public- and private-sector unions.

Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed the bills into law as soon as they reached his desk, completing in a few days a campaign to make Michigan the 24th U.S. state to prohibit unions from requiring employees to join and contribute dues.

“I view this as an opportunity to stand up for Michigan’s workers, to be pro-worker,” Snyder told a news conference after he signed the bills.

The laws will take effect 90 days after the end of the legislative session, which means they will probably come into force sometime in April. Existing union contracts will not be changed until they expire, according to a provision of the laws.

In a rapid turn of events, Michigan moved from being a bastion of union influence to joining states, mostly in the South, that have weakened local protections for unions.

The Teamsters union national president, James Hoffa, whose father, Jimmy Hoffa, was one of the nation’s most famous labor leaders until he disappeared in 1975 in Michigan, denounced Republican leaders in a speech to the protesters.

“Let me tell the governor and all those elected officials who vote for this shameful, divisive bill – there will be repercussions,” Hoffa said, adding the Republicans could be defeated in the next election.

Unions have accused Snyder of caving in to wealthy Republican business owners and political donors such as the Koch brothers, owners of an energy and trading conglomerate, and Richard DeVos, the co-founder of Michigan-based Amway.

Snyder, a former computer company executive who had said “right-to-work” legislation was too divisive for Michigan, changed course last week and announced his support for it.

While labor leaders decried the legislation, Republican Representative Lisa Lyons said during the debate in the House that such laws were not an attack on unions.

“This is the day Michigan freed its workers,” she said.

Opponents argue that the measures undermine a basic union tenet of bargaining collectively with employers for better wages, benefits and working conditions. They also allow workers to opt out of a union, potentially reducing membership.

By weakening unions, Republicans also could hurt the Democratic Party, which traditionally receives a significant portion of its funding and grass-roots support from unions.

Supporters of right-to-work measures say some unions have become too rigid and workers should be given a choice of whether to join. They also say a more flexible labor market encourages business investment, citing “right-to-work” states where some foreign automakers have put plants rather than in Michigan.

CRIES OF ‘SHAME’

The measures were approved to cries of “shame” from protesters inside the Capitol building, which was closed to visitors when it reached capacity of 2,200, Michigan State Police Inspector Gene Adamczyk said.

An estimated 10,000 more people demonstrated outside in cold and snowy conditions, including members of the United Auto Workers union, and teachers, who shut down several schools in the state to attend the rally.

A few protesters were ejected from the Capitol after they chanted slogans from the gallery during the debate. Protesters tore down two tents set up for supporters of “right-to-work” on the grounds of the Capitol. Adamczyk said six people were arrested after scuffling with officers.

A mixture of pepper spray and tear gas was used on one person, Adamczyk said, although Reuters journalists also saw protesters sprayed with a substance at a government building near the Capitol.

The protests recalled big rallies in Wisconsin nearly two years ago when Republicans voted to curb public-sector unions. Wisconsin never tried to pass “right-to-work” bills.

But Indiana earlier this year became the first state in the industrial Midwest to approve “right-to-work” legislation and several other states are watching the Michigan action closely.

LEGAL CHALLENGES LOOM

Republicans in Michigan were also emboldened by the defeat in the November election of a ballot initiative backed by unions that would have enshrined the right to collective bargaining in the state constitution.

Michigan is home of the heavily unionized U.S. auto industry, with some 700 manufacturing plants in the state. The state has the fifth highest percentage of workers who are union members, at 17.5 percent

The Detroit area is headquarters for General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler, which is majority-owned by Fiat SpA.

The UAW was founded in Michigan after a 1932 protest at a Ford plant in Dearborn left five people dead, increasing public sympathy for industrial workers during the Great Depression and leading to national legislation protecting unions.

Major automakers, which secured concessions from the UAW after nearly going bankrupt during the recession of 2008-09, were careful not to take sides publicly in the fight.

All of the so-called Big Three domestic automakers said they were “neutral” on “right-to-work,” even though the Michigan Chamber of Commerce strongly supports it.

“At Ford, we are focused on working with all our partners, including the UAW,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Democrats and unions have vowed to challenge the new laws in the courts, to try to overturn them in a ballot initiative and possibly oust through recall elections some Republicans who voted for the measures.

Democratic Representative Douglas Geiss said “right-to-work” laws would lead to a resumption of the battles surrounding the creation of unions decades ago.

“There will be fights on the shop floor if many workers announce they will not pay union dues,” Geiss said.

(Additional reporting by Robert Carr, David Bailey and Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Greg McCune and Peter Cooney)

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Reuters?!? A ban on mandatory union membership *IS NOT*, dealing a stunning blow to organized labor in the state that is home to U.S. automakers and the symbol of industrial labor in the United States. This protects the workers from mob mindedness or being forced into what become SECRET SOCIETIES that also collect yearly dues or other fees that mosy workers who need a union cannot and would rather not pay! Work unions are powerful and goodly when CONSENSUAL, but when EEVERY WORKER IS FORCED TO JOIN, we end up with ‘Satrapies’ run by tyrants, especially if term limits in the COMMITTEE are not a fact or part of the constitution of the Union in question. This law protects the individual worker by giving OPTIONS. How could Reuters write such news?!?

‘Supporters of right-to-work measures say some unions have become too rigid and workers should be given a choice of whether to join. They also say a more flexible labor market encourages business investment, citing “right-to-work” states where some foreign automakers have put plants rather than in Michigan.’ This says everything.

“There will be fights on the shop floor if many workers announce they will not pay union dues,” Geiss said.

Oh yea? So what if they don;t join or don’t pay. If they don’t want to pay the union mafia, thats their choice. Why should there be any fights at all. Are these unions thugs?

i fuckin hate this religion ,i grew up in muslim majority country and i can say muslims are full of shitt even though i don’t hate muslims i hate islam “To Muslims it is always a just war if the end goal is to spread Islam. If the war is waged by non Muslims to stop Muslims from marching in to spread Islam inside their land, it is an unjust war…Many Muslims call for da’wa in the West, which technically means “an invitation to Islam.” They present it as a “peaceful” invitation, but they do not tell the West that this is the first step before outright war if their da’wa is rejected. So when Muslims say da’wa, the West should be warned, because they do not want you to know that da’wa is merely the “make nice” first step before preceding outright jihad.” 7:56 PM

Blogger Gabe Del said…

I’m a witness to the ignorance that is Muslim . I’m a US Marine forward deployed on my 5th combat deployment. Four in Iraq and now one in afghanastan . These guys are illiterate and simple minded. The ten percent that can read will twist young Muslims minds to make them believe what ever they want them to believe in their Gods name. Kill, kill, kill is what they teach them against anyone not Muslim. There Koran teaches peace and good will, but I agree, history tells the truth of what kind of people they really are. No need to swear or lower yourself to their level. Muslims are the infection this world so desperately needs a cure for. 10:19 AM

Dead Ted said…

So your saying that the sneak attack on our towers, the pentagon, and the White House is a way to protect their land and people? Good plan worked wonders…some of the dumbest shit I’ve ever read 2:38 PM

Blogger Red_Rooster said…

Their minds are f***ed, memorizing the fucking Koran. Their ‘thinking’ part of the brain has gone redundant. They hate the Jews but do everything the Jews do; do not eat pork, cut their dicks, bleed a poor animal to death and call it ‘Hallal’ instead of ‘Kosher’, write backwards and wash their dicks before they start praying. In fact, the dumb muslims, follow the Jewish calender! The first day for the muslims is ‘Yom al Ahed’, meaning the first day. It is the Sunday; the first Jewish day after the Sabath. Yom al Itneen, Yom al thalata, Robo, Khamis and Juma, stand for the second, third, fouth, fifth and sixth day. The muslims 7th. day, is ‘Yom al Septh’; literally meaning, the seventh day. In fact, the Sabath; the day the Jews were told to rest. The muslims only differ from the Jews, is in their day of rest. They rest a day before the Jews. In prayer, physically they are the same, except the Jews literally tell you they are fucking somebody, while the muslims tell you, “Fuck Me!”

samy said…

to Jihan

I know what is written in Quraan , i was forced to read and even memorize it at school when I was living in my mother country before migrate to canada ( thank God), the true islam relegion is violence .. force other people to convert otherwise they will be islam enemy and should be killed .. this is what written in Quraan and you knw it and can not deny it… even in here in canada they are trying to force the stubid islamic belives on other people and their ultimate goal is to take over north america and europ .. I hope that our government to wake up and realise what is going on … WAKE UUUPPPP.., islam is evil , muslims are twisted minded and hate everyone simply because he or she is not muslim !!!! they will be in everlasting HELL.. this is the simple plan truth, so what ever you or any muslim try to say otherwise .. it is a BIGGGGG LIE.!! 10:45 AM

Event_Horizon said…

They are so backward in all aspects of life including commerce, infrastructure or technology. They are a brainwashed nation thirsty for the blood of other successful nations. And the worst part is their fucked up religion acts as a catalyst. It inspires them to wage was over the world. For how long will the world continue to tolerate these freaks of religion? The muslims sole mission in life is to create terror in the world. That is what they live for, that’s what their religion teaches them. They are jealous of the developed countries . . . P.S. Muslims smell bad…..True Story! 12:38 PM

Blogger Pris said…

I love all other religions except islam. Muslims are truly f***** up, but don’t know any better because they are brainwashed and left with no brains. Watch all the muslim countries in the world, none of their economies are doing well. The ones that have oil may have money, but they have no infrastructure, no scientific manpower etc. These assholes come to the west for a better life and then try to force their evil religion, customs, traditions and damn sharia law on the free citizens of the world. If left to thrive these guys will make our western nations deteriorate to the abysmal level of the muslim countries they came from. Their goal is to dominate the world and so they multiply like rats to increase their numbers. Before they become a sizable population in the west we should send these guys, including the ones that were born or converted in the west, to muslim countries and contain them there. Let them over populate muslim countries . . . are contaminating the west and so should be stopped before it is too late. To start off, we need to prohibit building of mosques and islamic schools, and publishing of the unholy koran. We need to unite and end this evil.

Blogger TheDeathBird said…

I know a family who left Lebanon to flee Muslim persecution. One of their grandsons returned to visit. On this trip there was a man yelling on the TV set in his hotel room. The man was protesting being fined a cow for shooting his wife for being outside the house. She had crossed a field and a man on a horse said something to her, since he didn’t get a clear shot at the man. Since he could not prove the man was really talking to his wife they fined him a cow. This is Muslim law this is what the Koran teaches. Also, in the Koran a woman told her husband to stop following Mohamid or she would leave She believed Mo was a bad evil monster. Her husband begged her to not talk bad about Mo but since She wouldn’t stop talking bad about Mohamid and She was Pregnant he cut his unborn child out of her belly. He went to Mo and told him and Mohamid said ” I can find no fault with this man” OK people this Story is in the Koran! can you imagine any other spiritual leader like Jesus or Krishna saying something like that! Only the spawn of hell the son of Satan the true Anti Christ would say such a thing Muslims worship the devil their God lives in hell and eats the faithful Muslims for dinner. While pretending to be God. Let any Muslim tell us that story isn’t in the Koran I read it! they follow this monster Mohamido the vile and say he is good. Anyone who reads the Koran who has any love inside them or spirtuality will be sad such a vile work of hate can be considered a work inspired by God. 7:48 PM

sexyharry said…

these guys(muslims) when small in numbers behave as if they are good (we respect other religions,and our god is tolerant etc.) but reality is there quran teaches to hate,kill people who doesn’t believe in islam, some of muslims are good as they doesn’t follow islam properly…….as muslims number increases they will be no more friend of urs ,they will take the side their muslim brothers and try to implement the shariah law’s,blasts,killing who leaves islam……so,i am a guy from sanathan dharam,in our religion we respect every other religion and our religion doesn’t believe in conversion bcoz god resides in us not by simple conversion…..so,i love all religions except islam ………4:02 AM

Blogger vsindia said…

Thes muslims are really lowly creatures. all the terrorists in this world are muslims. how can screw muslims ?

– stop giving them jobs
– shun them publicly
– make separate , stricter laws for muslims
– lets convert all their kids after killing the men
– lets creat gas chambers once again – only for muslims/

I hate them so much that my fist clench and jaws go tight when i think of these bastards. They have forcibly thrown out hindus out of kashmir and christians out of bosnia.

4:42 AM

mark said…

not all muslims are bad but I am sick of them. I am sick of them coming to the west and demanding that shariah law be implemented in western nations. if muzzies think shariah law is so great then they should piss off and go live in a muslim nation.

sick of their fantical hate and terrorism.
sick of their demands and sick of their backward ways.
muslims should go and live in muslim nations and keep their shit ways in muslim nations.

10:08 PM

Blogger marine corps captain said…

JIHAN,

I have taken significant time to read your Koran. And I would rather wipe my ass with a dirty, dime store novel than waste another minute reading, or listening, to that complete pile of pig cum.
Thank GOD I had the opportunity to kill 19 of your brethren while in Iraq. 19 less jihadists on the move.
It’s not ignorance my camel fucking friend…I completely understand your beliefs, motives and wants for this world. And if given the chance I would end your life as well. And your family’s and friend’s lives if possible.
And please refrain from the old tag line of “That’s not true Islam.” Any individual with a 3rd grade education has the ability to understand your religion of hate, murder, suppresion and penchant for death. Watch your back, Muhhamed…you won’t have a second chance with me. 8:23 AM

Fighting to live said…

Hi guys . I am married to a moslem but I am Greek Orthodox. This is a quite funny mix. Our kids are Christian I made sure . But the Moslems all jokes aside have made and continue to make efforts to convert me. That is quite frightening. My husband offered to convert. So I decided to make him sell everything in Pakistan and the next step is to convert him. Wait and see. Keep up the great work

8:50 PM

Blogger Uncle_Sam said…

this maessage is for the fucking muslims

Long gone are the days when you used to blow yourselves up in the middle of the streets in the countries that you infest with your presence.You forget that we are the ones who created and adopted this so-called human rights but we can also break em! you call yourselves warriors ? Com on up and fight you stinckin’ cowards! we’ll show you what a war means…We’ll show you what everyone felt 65 years ago!We’ll show the Nazi style bitches…we will behead all of your stinckin’ children and your masked-shit-pushed-in wifes… Can u all spell together HOLOCAUST? 3:10 PM

Blogger Red_Rooster said…

sdlfihsdiulkgh54;kuy5b4jgrehthredyth said… This man talks of porn … Tell him to go to Yemen. He can fuck 12 yr. old girls there for free! Three times a day! Free!

I lived in Yemen and I know. All the women go out around noon to eat Kat at their friends’. You just pick these Burka clad women and boy, when they enter your home, the Burka is off in a jiffy! Just like that! Pot luck but fucking lucky evertime I had. I must have fucked over 300 muslim cunts in my 5-year stay there. No worry of husbands. They are all in working in Saudi Arabia; coolies there and their 12 year old brides are getting fucked back home. By the way … all their women have inserted in them, the ‘Copper T’. A muslim Female gynacologist I knew, made a roaring business from inserting these things.

The ruder parts of the above have been edited out. The acts of terror are clear enough, but just from a woman’s angle, one doesn’t need to be a woman to want Islam to end in some places, to see how horrible Muslimahs lives are in some places . . . combine with a chastity belt (Christianity) and wallah, a semi-Cyborg . . . how much do some of the very worse among Muslets hate life or procreation that makes them treat women like this, makes the ‘no condoms’ Catholic lot seem humane even though abortion IS A HUMAN RIGHT.

Full Comment’s Araminta Wordsworth brings you a daily round-up of quality punditry from across the globe. Today: It’s the statistics, stupid!

There are more than 83 million people living in Egypt, the Middle East’s most populous nation; 90% of them are Sunni Muslims. More than half dwell in small towns and villages in the countryside and tend to be deeply conservative, attached to tradition. There is a small, urban, educated upper-middle class of liberals and left-wingers.

If these people get the vote, guess who the majority would go for? Under these circumstances, the dramatic swing from dictatorship through democracy to dictatorship is all too sadly predictable.

Now, Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood member who was elected Egyptian president in June, is showing his true colours — he’s like Hosni Mubarak with a beard. He wants nothing less than an Islamic state, with sharia law and Muslim clerics empowered to render legal opinions.

His idea of reaching out to the opposition is to restate his position, as he did in last week’s speech. This was so devoid of anything resembling reconciliation or fresh ideas, the BBC cut off the live feed after about seven minutes.

Instead, Morsi is calling on the military to do his dirty work, arresting and trying civilians. Brotherhood members have also resorted to torture and the kind of vigilante “justice” that was a feature of the ancient regime. In their view, opponents are Mubarak supporters and/or paid troublemakers.

The Economist for one has seen the writing on the wall.

[Morsi’s actions have polarized Egypt’s exhausted people. The most populous and politically pivotal Arab state stands on the brink of prolonged civil strife, or a descent into a form of veiled dictatorship not unlike the one so recently overthrown, only this time in drab Islamist garb …
The abruptness of the Islamists’ lunge for control has ignited Egypt’s hitherto fractious opposition in outrage, prompting protests on the scale of those during the revolution. A group of former presidential candidates has picked Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel peace prize-winner and former UN official, as their leader, and threatened strikes and continued protests until Mr. Morsi relents. The judges, who usually run such things, plan to boycott the referendum. But he shows no signs of backing down. Tired, impoverished and apprehensive, ordinary Egyptians may be tempted to let the Muslim Brotherhood have their way.

Morsi remains intent on strictly following the course of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamist group wants to see their man, who won a narrow victory in summer elections, to put Egypt on the path to fundamentalist Islam. And the Muslim Brotherhood is in no mood for compromise. After more than 80 years in the political underground, Brotherhood leaders have decided to seize their chance. And Morsi increasingly looks the part of a fainthearted Brotherhood puppet. He appears to have accepted his country’s descent into violence, making more clashes on the streets of Cairo inevitable.

At The National Review, Andrew C. McCarthy says Egypt’s unravelling was inevitable.

Here’s the late-breaking news: The Muslim Brotherhood is the enemy of democracy. … the Muslim Brotherhood is an innately, incorrigibly Islamic-supremacist outfit. Wherever it establishes a presence, it seeks — as gradually as indigenous conditions require, and as rapidly as they allow — to implement its repressive construction of sharia. Wherever it gets the opportunity to rule, it uses its power to impose this sharia, despite resistance from the society’s non-Islamist factions.

This is not a mere theory. Egypt, the world’s most important Arab country, is violently convulsing before our eyes in direct reaction to the suffocation that is Islamist rule. So, will we finally take the lesson? Will we finally come to understand why democracy and Islamic supremacism cannot coexist? Ebrahim Moosa, an Islamic studies prof at North Carolina’s Duke University, believes the Egyptian president and his Islamic allies badly misjudged the situation.

Mr. Morsi seems to have forgotten the sensitivity that a country freshly freed from decades of despotism might feel towards anything with an odour of dictatorship. Secretive and inward-looking, the Brotherhood appears surprised by the depth of mistrust that many Egyptians, including pious Muslims of every social class, feel towards them. The Islamists’ constituency remains large and their organising power formidable. “They will rally the poor with the slogan: to be a Muslim, vote yes for the constitution and confound the infidels,” predicts Muhammad Nour Farahat, a law professor at Cairo’s Zagazig University. Yet even if Mr Morsi and his Brothers manage to pull this off, a heavy cloud will remain over their rule.

Why not the military just take over and do away with the Islamist b.s. and revive a BENEVOLENT Constitutional Pharoanate via DNA testing to determine the closest Royal Egyptian bloodline? A BENEVOLENT Grand Vizier from the military would well be tolerated even for LIFE (if all unused state land is redistribited to the landless or homeless in Egypt) while the country RE-EGYPTIANISES. This would be preferable to this potential threat of the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist imposition of Hudud or Syariah under Morsi which does not need to be written into the constitution and instead remain seperate from the State. Religion and State are not to be confused into a single item under any Islamist leaning Constitution. Let the Muslets impose their own laws on theselves, LEAVE THE SECULARITY OF STATE ALONE.

WHERE IS THE Pharoah’s Brotherhood or Amon-Ra’s Brotherhood to counter the Muslim Brotherhood? Freemasonry across the world could accept no less!

This is EGYPT and Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, the central symbol of the Egyptian civilisation is THE PYRAMID OF THE PHAROAHS . . . NOT ARABIA and Mecca or Medina, the central symbol of the Arabian civilisation is THE CUBE OF KABAA.

Egypt is not Arabia.

Adopt EGYPTIAN NAMES not keep using those ARABIAN NAMES (the wealthier can trace their DNA down to the nobility or even Kings if they try hard enough). Pray and worship at EGYPTIAN Temples. Respect a revived Egyptian Priesthood not a Foreign Priesthood that answers to a foreign Arab King. Wear Egyptian garb. In Egypt, if the Egyptian people have the will, an Egyptian King is even possible (Constitutional Monarch), or an Egyptian Pharoah rather.

Learn Hieratic instead of Arabic and remember that EGYPTIAN culture and polytheistic EGYPTIAN religion (well if the people are as lazy as Akenathan, worship Amon-Ra instead for a while NOT the Kabaa – even as the Aabakian Octohedron Cult arises on the Mecc(h)an Antipode) are well loved the world over, as opposed to Islamism’s monotheistic malaise and penchant for association with oil and terror, rampant disrespectful proselytization and sometimes forced conversions.

At least some Egyptians seem to remember who they are . . . the Egyptian Pantheon’s first High Priest perhaps? Imhotep! Imhotep! Imhotep II rather . . .

China has embraced the challenge of putting up the world’s tallest building in only 90 days. The 838-meter skyscraper, dubbed Sky City, is set to house 17,400 people as well as a hotel, a hospital, several schools, offices and apartments.

­Construction workers from the Broad Sustainable Building company are expected to build at a rate if five stories a day to meet the deadline. To speed the process up, they will reportedly use the ‘prefabrication’ technique in which blocks of the building are constructed offsite and then pieced together.

The skyscraper, located in Hunan Province’s capital Changsha, will feature over 100 high-speed elevators, and is expected to be able to withstand a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.

When completed, the building will be 10 meters taller than the Dubai landmark Burj Khalifa, the world’s current tallest building, which took five years to build. China’s Sky City is set to cost half as much as the Burj – about $630 million.

China-based Broad Sustainable Building will employ several thousand workers for the ambitious project. The company has already built 16 structures in China, including a 30-story hotel constructed in 15 days.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Half the price at 20 times the speed. What will the building stats look like in another 20 years? Double the height, quarter the price at 200 times the speed? Thats 9 days at $315 million at double height . . . one can imagine high tech light weight reconstituted materials straight from landfills being used by then . . . so if a superhighway connected EVERY single states’ tower . . .

The floorage and ‘balcony-age’ of the pic doesn’t look very impressive though. Perhaps higher ceilings and more balcony space would be more city like, vehicular access via connected ramps right up to the top would then truly mean ‘City’. Without vehicle (or at least some kind of golf cart sized internal vehicle) access, or massive multistorey high ‘green lungs’, and massive multistorey high sky-lobbies the ‘City’ name for any building is but a misnomer.

ARTICLE 2

Royal Mail to step up action against dog owners after more than 3,000 attacks on postal workers in a year – by Daily Mail Reporter – PUBLISHED: 01:54 GMT, 24 November 2012 | UPDATED: 02:00 GMT, 24 November 2012

The Royal Mail pledged today to take more action against owners of dogs that attack postal workers after a new report called for tougher legislation.

The postal group said it will actively pursue legal action against the owners of dangerous dogs and take a more ‘robust’ approach to suspending deliveries to addresses where attacks take place.

The moves follow publication of an independent inquiry into dog attacks on postal staff, which the Royal Mail said numbered more than 3,000 in the year to April.
Sort it out: Royal Mail are pressing for action after thousands of attacks on its workers by dogs

Sort it out: Royal Mail are pressing for action after thousands of attacks on its workers by dogs

Former High Court judge Sir Gordon Langley recommended that new legislation should be introduced to provide tougher legal sanctions against owners of dangerous dogs.

The report pointed out that action cannot be taken if an attack takes place on private property, limiting legal protection available to postmen and women.

Guilty of cruelty but not even fined: Circus owner who let Anne the elephant be chained and beaten walks free

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which has criticised the Government for failing to take action on dangerous dogs, said today’s report should be the catalyst needed to bring action.

The union said the number of postal workers suffering dog attacks was nearer 5,000 a year.

Sir Gordon’s report called on the Government to repeal current legislation and provide a new statute so that legal action can be taken against dog owners, wherever an attack takes place.

New laws have already been introduced in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with legislation planned in Wales.

Making a stance: The Royal Mail has said it will take legal action against owners of dogs who have attacked postmen and women

Sir Gordon said: ‘It is a matter of real concern to learn of the extent and frequency of attacks on postal workers and to find that for a considerable time there has been almost general agreement not only on the inadequacies of the present law in England and Wales but also on the nature of the reforms required to address it, but to date it remains unchanged.’

Royal Mail chairman Donald Brydon said: ‘Dog attacks cause injuries and terrible trauma to our staff. Nobody should have to endure this and our staff are at an increased risk of such attacks simply because of the job they do.

‘We welcome the findings in Sir Gordon Langley’s independent report, especially his call for an urgent reform of the laws in England and Wales. We have also taken on board his comments that Royal Mail should take a more robust approach with customers whose dogs attack postmen and women. We will adjust our policies immediately.’

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: ‘Sir Gordon’s recommendations take on board our own long-standing campaign objectives of securing new UK-wide laws which apply on private property, moving away from breed-specific legislation, introducing microchipping and getting serious when it comes to prosecution and punishment.

‘England will soon be the only part of the UK without updated dogs laws as Scotland and Northern Ireland have already introduced new improved legislation and Wales is legislating in the current session.

‘This Government has procrastinated and steadfastly refused to act on the issue of dangerous dogs while people continue to suffer serious injuries and lose their lives in dog attacks.’

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Suspension of services for the period required for the same postman to heal up, and compensation of paid leave if needed and hospital bills, perhaps temporary replacement staff or payment of double shifts for those taking over from the injured postman, should make the owners of vicious dogs cautious to keep their home gate shut at mail delivery time for both their own pocket’s, and the postman’s health. If your dog bites the postman, you pay for leave, replacement staff, or medical expenses. At the same time, the post service needs to have a sort of schedule as well so that owners who do let their animals out can take the effort to keep the animals in at the right times.

ARTICLE 3

Thailand police fire tear gas at anti-government protests

Saturday, November 24, 2012 – 09:23 AM

Anti-government protesters calling for Thailand’s Prime Minister to step down launched a rally in Bangkok today that authorities feared would grow into the biggest demonstration the country has seen since she took office last year.

The rally, which was expected to draw tens of thousands of protesters, was mostly peaceful in its early stages.

Police, however, fired tear gas to disperse between 50 to 100 people who tried to break through a line of concrete barricades erected on a street near the protest site.

Earlier in the week, premier Yingluck Shinawatra ordered nearly 17,000 police to deploy and invoked a special security law, citing concerns that the rally could turn violent.

She also accused demonstrators of seeking to overthrow her elected government.

The demonstration underscores the still-simmering political divisions that have split the country since the army toppled Ms Yingluck’s brother Thaksin Shinawatra in a 2006 military coup.

Led by retired army general Boonlert Kaewprasit, the group accuses Ms Yingluck’s administration of corruption, ignoring insults to the revered monarchy and being a puppet of her brother.

Addressing several thousand protesters on the rally’s central stage, Mr Boonlert vowed the demonstration would remain peaceful. But he said: “I promise that Pitak Siam will succeed in driving this government out.”

He then led the crowd in a chant: “Yingluck, get out! Yingluck, get out!”

The rally was being held at Bangkok’s Royal Plaza, a public space near parliament that has been used by protesters in the past.

Police allowed protesters into the site, and two roads leading to it were open. But in an effort to control access, security forces erected concrete barriers on another road leading to Royal Plaza.

When between 50 to 100 protesters tried to break through one of the barriers, a contingent of around 500 police fired tear gas and beat them back with batons.

While Pitak Siam is a newcomer to Thailand’s protest scene, it is linked to the well-known Yellow Shirt protesters, whose rallies led to Mr Thaksin’s overthrow.

The same movement later toppled a Thaksin-allied elected government after occupying and shutting down Bangkok’s two airports for a week in 2008.

Mr Thaksin remains a divisive figure in Thai politics. The Yellow Shirts and their allies say he is corrupt and accuse him of seeking to undermine the popular constitutional monarch – claims he denies.

Ms Yingluck was taking Saturday’s rally seriously – her cabinet invoked the Internal Security Act on Thursday in three Bangkok districts around the protest site and she later addressed the nation to explain the move, citing concerns of violence.

The security act allows authorities to close roads, impose curfews and ban use of electronic devices in designated areas. Measures began taking effect on Thursday night, with police closing roads around Ms Yingluck’s office, the Government House, and placing extra security at the homes of senior officials, including the prime minister.

In a nationally-televised address Ms Yingluck said protest leaders “seek to overthrow an elected government and democratic rule … and there is evidence that violence may be used to achieve those ends”.

National police chief spokesman Maj Gen Piya Uthayo said yesterday that 16,800 police officers had been called in from around the country to provide security for the rally.

Mr Boonlert, the protest group’s leader, is best known for his role as president of the Thailand Boxing Association. His name is unfamiliar in the anti-Thaksin protest movement, but his message appears to have resonated with Yellow Shirt supporters who have laid low in recent years after Ms Yingluck’s party won the last elections.

Analysts said they did not view the protest as an immediate threat to Ms Yingluck’s government, but were watching it closely.

“Any time you have tens of thousands of people converging, assembling in a central Bangkok location, it becomes a government stability concern,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

But he added: “I think it’s a serious concern more than a serious threat.”

Thailand has been gripped by bouts of political instability since 2006, with Thaksin’s supporters and opponents taking turns to spar over who has the right to rule the country.

The most violent episode came in 2010, when Thaksin’s Red Shirt supporters led a two-month occupation of central Bangkok to demand the resignation of an anti-Thaksin government.

The protests sparked a military crackdown that left at least 91 people dead and more than 1,700 injured.

Mr Thaksin has lived in self-imposed exile since 2008, when he jumped bail to evade a corruption conviction and two-year jail term. He retains huge popularity among the rural poor, who want to see him pardoned and returned to power.

But he is reviled by the urban elite and educated middle class, who see him as authoritarian and a threat to the monarchy.

Buoyed by Mr Thaksin’s (ill gotten) political cash machine, Ms Yingluck was elected by a landslide victory in August 2011.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Don’t bother rallying. GET THE MPs to remove Yingluck in a simple vote. Ralliers, don’t blocakade the Capital, instead, blockade the homes of MPs who wont get rid of Yingluck instead.

ARTICLE 4

Researchers Produce Self-Shaping Nanomachines That Can Be Mass Produced

Once again, the natural world has inspired the scientific world.

This time, it was the dandelion that inspired researchers to create a self-shaping nanomachine that can be reproduced through an automated process.

The ability to mass produce these microscopic machines opens the door to a multitude of applications from medicine to military. However, like with any great discovery there is a dark side.

Many people believe that if the nanomachine is successfully created and mass produced, it will be the cause of Armageddon in a scenario that theorists call the Gray Goo.

Researchers from the University of Washington in the U.S. and Aalto University in Finland discovered that these nanomachines could in fact be massed produced with a trick they observed in nature with a dandelion.

The researchers realized that building most machines, including nanomachines, begins with the shaping of metals. Exploring this fundamental of fabrication and hoping to find some sort of cue in nature, the researchers discovered that dandelion stems (when cut into small strips) were placed in water, they would bend and curl.

The different shapes were dependent on the amount of water absorption on the two sides of the strips. The key was to replicate these formations with metal, and use some sort of catalyst that would trigger the bending.

Self-Shaping Metals

The team discovered that the same results occurred with the nanoscale metal materials when an ion beamed was used. Like the dandelion strips, the microscopic metals began to bend and curl.

Then, the researchers were able to use the ion beam to create specific and even complex shapes.

They were able to start with a three-dimension hexagon shape. Then, they applied the ion beam to the metal shape, which caused it to open, or bloom like a flower. The researchers were even able to construct microscopic cubes using the same technique.

However, the structures also possessed characteristics that the researchers were not expecting.

According to the team, the resulting nanostructures were also quite resilient. It appears that the structures were able to withstand harsh conditions, such as extreme heat and electrostatic discharge. Furthermore, the nanostructures were also able to capture and hold particles that are roughly a micrometer in size.

Even though the research is promising, it is still in the preliminary stages. The team asserted:

“However, we believe that we are just scratching the tip of the iceberg: a comprehensive theory of ion-assisted self-assembly processes is yet to be reached.” (1)

Will a Nano-Future Trigger Armageddon?

As promising as the possible applications are, there are some who believe any self-assembly process on a nanoscale would be the beginning of the end: a scenario commonly referred to as the Gray Goo.

The phrase was coined in 1986 by Eric Drexler, an American engineer and nanotech pioneer. The term refers to result of nanorobots self-assembling to the point where they appear to be this massive gray ooze that consumes everything in its path.

The “consumption” involved in this scenario is the process of the nanorobots turning organic material into more nanorobots. Even though this scenario makes for fantastic science fiction reading, it does not really make for great science.

There are several aspects of the gray goo scenario that make it implausible. One theory is that any self-assembly /self-replicating process would have checks and balances in place to prevent an out-of-control replicating process.

Furthermore, the system proposed here, like most, is more akin to a factory assembly line than reproducing bacteria, which is how the gray goo is often described.

Think of it as an automobile factory. Much of it is automated, but it does not have the means nor the resources to produce at an out-of-control pace that would overtake the world.

Finally, the gray goo would need massive computing power and complex chemistry to even survive the environment. (3) Most scientists agree that the gray goo scenario is an outdated premise that is better left to science fiction.

With that in mind, the discovery made by the researchers from the University of Washington in the U.S. and Aalto University in Finland is very much a breakthrough that should be celebrated, not feared.

Dennis Dufrene is the resident historian and technical writer. With this background, Dennis brings insight and accuracy to the stories published here at Top Secret Writers. Dennis has 379 post(s) at Top Secret Writers

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

i) There are several aspects of the gray goo scenario that make it implausible. One theory is that any self-assembly /self-replicating process would have checks and balances in place to prevent an out-of-control replicating process.

There are none, if the hacker of the AI controlling the nanobots has no scruples. We all know that code can be changed depending on the user/hacker.

ii) Furthermore, the system proposed here, like most, is more akin to a factory assembly line than reproducing bacteria, which is how the gray goo is often described. . . .

Wheres the logic in that statement? Eh? Wot? That makes no sense at all. The article writer needs to make sense or study grammar. SO WHAT if ‘gray goo’ is described as ‘factory assembly line’? Whats to stop the programmer or hacker make the nanobot swarm behave like grey goo regardless of how the nanobot is created? See below article for how the AI controlling the nanobots are more important in determining gray goo behaviour than how the individual nanobot is created. Nanobots are fatal weapons if used on Nuclear Plants. So unless a nanomite-wall is already possible, all likelihood that containment areas are being perforated by nanomites chewing their way into the Nuclear facility, so keep building more Nuclear plants and enjoy your terrorist nanotech irradiators, any plant could go boom or crack up and collapse from within from ‘nanomite undermining’ of super structures, and not a terrorist would have to even be near the piece of sh1t irradiative eco-disaster in the waiting . . . Ostrich burying head in sand alert anyone?

ARTICLE 5

Freeway Drones for a Futuristic Highway Patrol – November 24, 2012 6:05 pm – by PHIL PATTON / The New York Times

IT’S a future far from Ponch and Jon, the Los Angeles-based motorcycle officers of “CHiPs,” a TV series that rose to popularity in the 1970s. In this take on the California Highway Patrol of 2025, patrol cars and motorcycles would be replaced by computerized drones; chips take over CHiPs.

Here, the highway patrol vehicles of the future will be mostly self-driving, if you accept the solutions offered by the entries in this year’s Design Challenge, an annual competition organized in conjunction with the Los Angeles auto show. For the last nine years, the Design Challenge has invited automakers’ advanced design studios to dream up proposals for sci-fi automotive futures tied to specific themes, including cars that weighed less than 1,000 pounds or that were destined for Hollywood roles. This year’s competition asked designers to envision the highway patrol car of 2025.

By coincidence or destiny, designers at several companies came up with concepts for robotic, autonomously driven vehicles on ground, water and air. These future police cruisers — usually presented as story boards rather than actual vehicles — recall today’s Predator and Global Hawk drones, stars of the anti-insurgency efforts. They may give new meaning to those signs that read “Speed limit enforced by aircraft.”

In the future, as the organizers outlined it, “the vehicle should empower highway patrol officers to meet new demands and effectively both ‘protect and serve’ the public while considering not just enforcement needs but emission concerns, population growth and transportation infrastructure.” The world of 2025, the participants seem to agree, will be a place where traffic has grown exponentially, infrastructure has deteriorated, environmental constraints have increased — and highway patrol budgets have been reduced.

As envisioned by Honda R&D Americas’ advanced design studio in Pasadena, Calif., the future Honda CHP Drone Squad includes four-wheel Auto-Drones, like cars, and two-wheel Moto-Drones, like motorcycles. The proposal offers a future where the Auto-Drone functions as something of a command vehicle — manned or unmanned — that deploys Moto-Drones, even while on the move. The Moto-Drones could be rigged for a variety of different response or rescue tasks. While such vehicles might be decades from reality, the flexibility of this strategy could offer companies that built both types of vehicles an advantage in securing government contracts.

At the BMW DesignworksUSA studio in Newbury Park, Calif., designers dreamed up the E-Patrol (Human-Drone Pursuit Vehicle). In this arrangement, the officer and drone would work in harmony, like today’s officers and their K-9 partners. The BMW drone team would be able to deploy a flying drone, which resembles a high-tech Jet Ski cruise missile, or one of a pair of unicyclelike robotic vehicles to chase lawbreakers. And if the suspect doesn’t pull over? In the E-Patrol vision, the BMW designers say, their drone would disable the vehicle with an electromagnetic impulse.

The Subaru Highway Automated Response Concept vehicles, developed by Subaru Research and Development in Japan and designed specifically for Hawaii, are powered by renewable energy — and they have aquatic capability. “The cutting-edge SHARC patrol vehicles will provide an innovative, affordable and environmentally conscious solution for 24-hour highway monitoring,” the designers say.

The Volt Squad, dreamed up at General Motors’ Advanced Design Center in North Hollywood, Calif., is a set of future patrol vehicles that would take advantage of the propulsion system engineered for the Chevrolet Volt. The squad is composed of three different types of vehicles that still contain human officers. Each type is specially designed to observe, pursue or engage — the last term left menacingly undefined.

Judges for the Design Challenge include Tom Matano, director of the industrial design program at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco; Imre Molnar from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit; and Stewart Reed, chairman of the transportation design department at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. The winner will be announced on Thursday at an event in conjunction with the auto show.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
First Published November 24, 2012 6:01 pm

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

1) And if the suspect doesn’t pull over? In the E-Patrol vision, the BMW designers say, their drone would disable the vehicle with an electromagnetic impulse.

Won’t work if your vehicle is wholly non-electronic. I can see a whole new generation of non-electronic manual gear based modders, who will keep any electronics away from the engine or gearbox, signal lights.

2) Each type is specially designed to observe, pursue or engage — the last term left menacingly undefined.

Engage? Unless walking robots are involved, all a criminal needs to do is get off the road, climb a tree (or a staircase), or hijack a car to confound the entire system. See below link for a better or auxillary robot that could be attached to the ‘car-bot’.

These kinds of weapons would make it more likely that a state would go to war…shifting the burden of conflict away from the military, those who are trained to fight, to civilians who will bear the brunt of any mistakes that these killer robots make. And they will inevitably make mistakes,” Stephen Goose, the arms division director of Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch has called for an international ban on ‘killer robots’ – autonomous machines that independently decide their targets, Press TV reports.

“They’re weapons where there is no human intervention. That is, the armed robot itself makes the decision about what its target should be and when it should pull the trigger,” Stephen Goose, the arms division director of Human Rights Watch told Press TV.

“Killer robots are the shorthand name for fully autonomous weapons. These are something we think of as being beyond drones,” Goose said, adding that “the farther down the road this gets, the harder it’s going to be to stop it.”

The expert said an international ban, as well as prohibitions in each country, must be started before these robots become the future of war.

“The more money that’s poured into it, the more time passes, the more they’re going to get integrated into future war plans and into the doctrine of various militaries. We think the only way to approach this is to nip it in the bud and to have a prohibition now,” Goose added.

Goose criticized the role of the United States military in the “secretive and classified” development of these deadly weapons.

The US Pentagon has begun a contest, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Robotics Challenge, to advance its efforts to develop robotic soldiers to fight the wars of the future, focusing on testing the robots’ abilities to work in difficult situations designed for humans that “simulate conditions in a dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environment.”

He added that these weapons would violate the proportionality test, which is required under international humanitarian law to weigh the advantages of an attack against possible civilian casualties.

“These kinds of weapons would make it more likely that a state would go to war…shifting the burden of conflict away from the military, those who are trained to fight, to civilians who will bear the brunt of any mistakes that these killer robots make. And they will inevitably make mistakes,” Goose concluded.

Dotcom says he could sue US government for $2.6 billion – by Kim Schmitz – Monday 26 November 2012, 12:45

MegaUpload founder Kim ‘Dotcom’ Schmitz has threatened to sue the US government after the revelation that some of the pirated content listed as being on his former company’s servers by prosecutors had been left there at the request of the American Department Of Justice.

MegaUpload, of course, was shut down at the start of the year by the US authorities amidst allegations of money laundering, racketeering and copyright infringement against the company and its management, four key members of which, including Dotcom, are living in New Zealand and are currently fighting efforts to extradite them to America.

Amongst other things, prosecutors claim that MegaUpload operated a deliberately shoddy takedown system for removing copyright material once made aware of it, whilst also encouraging users to upload unlicensed music, movies and TV shows, because doing so ensured the wider Mega platform had a constant supply of popular content, driving traffic, ad sales and subscriptions, even though rights owners were never paid a penny.

But Dotcom and the Mega team insist their company operated within US copyright law, removing unlicensed content in line with America’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act. And even more than that, it was revealed earlier this month that the company itself occasionally assisted the DoJ when it was investigating other companies accused of piracy which stored and distributed illegal content via the Mega platform.

One such piracy operation was NinjaVideo, and, now say Mega’s legal team, some of the content prosecutors have listed in their case against Dotcom actually belonged to that venture, and was not deleted by MegaUpload because of a request from the DoJ, which wanted the unlicensed files to remain accessible while it continued to investigate Ninja’s activities.

According to reports, prosecutors say that’s no excuse, because some of the content stored in NinjaVideo’s locker on MegaUpload was also available elsewhere on the Mega platform, and, now knowing for certain that that content was unlicensed because of the Ninja investigation, the digital firm should have removed the additional copies. But Mega’s lawyers say that their clients were cautious of doing platform-wide deletions of that content, in case it impacted on the NinjaVideo content that formed part of the DoJ’s case.

Quite how relevant the NinjaVideo content is to the wider MegaUpload case isn’t clear, but that didn’t stop Dotcom telling his Twitter followers that the DoJ was “a gang of rogue US attorneys out of control”, before revealing that he’d been advised: “We can sue the US govt or MPAA members for $2.6 billion in damages for the destruction of our businesses”.

Although access to MegaUpload’s fortune has been frozen since the US government shut down the Mega business in January, Dotcom says he soon hopes to have financial backing to allow a lawsuit against America.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Focus on democracy and at very most demand formal apologies (for what could be domestic terrorism), and equitable damages probably in the tune of a few 10Ks for inconvenience and living expenses or the few months lost etc.., instead. The US govermnent could hide behind the department concerned, and a single department cannot be liable to 2.6 billion in compensation. Besides, given the state of the economy, no way will payouts of this level be possible. 2.6 billion cannot even be given to Middle Eastern military contractors on the US’s side, so for certain Kim cannot expect this sort of compensation as well. Be reasonable Kim, public apologies by the department and sums reasonable that the department gets in yearly allotments could be demanded (I doubt they get 2.6 billion), but the government would be untouchable. I’m on your side Kim, but if I were the US government and had to pay 2.6 billion when US finances were this bad, might as well call in an assassin and avoid court expenditures and payout. This is not an apartheid case, but more like an abuse of power case . . . strike a spiritual blow for freedom and demand AMENDMENTS TO LAW instead of monies that don’t change anything, money can be taken away or the owner of the money killed, LAWS cannot be taken away, and if the people are educated, laws can prevent extreme powers by the state. Forget about the payout thing. Won’t work.

ARTICLE 8

Megaupload Boss Kim Dotcom Offers To Surrender, Face Trial In U.S. Without Extradition

Megaupload founder and accused piracy king Kim Dotcom has offered to forgo his delayed extradition trial and come to the U.S. to fight the charges against him and three others.

Dotcom said on Twitter that the Department of Justice must meet certain ground rules first, however.

“Hey DOJ, we will go to the US. No need for extradition,” he wrote on the micro-blogging site. “We want bail, funds unfrozen for lawyers & living expenses.”

The offer comes a day after a New Zealand court delayed an extradition hearing until March due to ongoing legal hearings regarding the seizure of evidence from an illegal raid on Dotcom’s mansion.

“We are not expecting to hear back regarding the offer and I remain committed to fighting extradition in New Zealand,” he added.

Despite the charges against him, Dotcom has vowed that Megaupload will return.

BGR

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Thaksin could learn from Schmidt. Thaksin should go back to Thailand and face the court with whatever foreign monitors in tow instead of using Yingluck as a proxy to disrupt Thailand.

ARTICLE 9

THE German government is about to reintroduce a ban on bestiality, after pressure from animal welfare groups.

Newspaper die Tageszeitung reports that the governing coalition are soon to amend the country’s Animal Welfare Act to make sex with animals punishable with a fine of up to 25,000 euros ($31,000).

Bestiality was legalised in Germany in 1969, the same year that gay sex was also removed from the criminal code. After that, sex with animals was only punishable if the animal was severely injured.

However animal welfare groups have pushed for the ban to be reinstated, in an advertising campaign that used dramatic examples of “animal rape”.

Agriculture minister Ilse Aigner has agreed to change the law to make it illegal for people to “use (animals) for their own sexual activities or sexual acts of third parties” – which also bans the ‘pimping’ of animals to others.

However the move has aroused the ire of zoophile group ZETA.

Lobbyist Michael Kiok, who lives with his dog Cassie, told the newspaper there were more than 100,000 zoophiles in Germany.

“Mere morals have no place in law,” he said.

Mr Kiok said he was worried that if the law took effect the authorities would try to take away his dog.

The amendment to the law will be debated in the German parliament in mid-December.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Good work to a point. 3rd party definitely applicable, but for personal use, there should be a panel who will judge if the animal is ‘happy’ or ‘suffering’, which is quite easy to do given the advanced brain scanning technologies they have today. While most of us wouldn’t indulge, always remember Voltaire and expand on the logic! Not just freedom of speech, but FREEDOM TO LIVE AS ONE WILL . . .

(Reuters) – Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, a leading strategist in confronting Iran over its nuclear programme, said in a surprise announcement on Monday that he would quit political life after the January 22 national election.

Some commentators speculated Barak was trying to duck a trouncing for his tiny centrist party in the ballot, after which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads the front-running, right-wing Likud, might return him to defence and military headquarters as a professional appointee.

But others said 70-year-old Barak, who has served as prime minister and armed forces chief, may have had enough of campaigning and wanted to focus on resolving the Iranian issue before leaving his post.

“I stand before you to share my decision to resign from political life and not to run in the coming election for the Knesset,” Barak told a news conference, adding he would stay on as defence chief until a new administration is sworn in.

Speaking five days after an eight-day Gaza offensive ended in a ceasefire with the enclave’s Hamas Islamist rulers, Barak said he wanted to spend more time with his family and that politics “has never been a passion of mine”.

Should Barak’s resignation prove permanent his successor would likely come from Likud ranks. He might even be replaced by the current foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, the Likud’s more hawkish coalition partner.

Few doubt that this would affect the tenor of a ministry that oversees everything from armed conflict to administration of occupied Palestinian territory to liaising with regional power-broker Egypt.

Danny Yatom, an old army comrade of Barak’s who went on to serve as head of the Mossad spy agency, described him as a “moderate anchor” for a Netanyahu government whose sabre-rattling on Iran has often raised the hackles of the United States and other Western countries.

Yet Yatom, who served under Netanyahu during his first term as prime minister in the late 1990s, said the Israeli leader appeared to be patching up his testy ties with Barak Obama since the U.S. president’s re-election three weeks ago.

“I would think and hope that this relationship will provide the main guide for government policies” on Iran, Yatom said.

With Netanyahu, Barak has been at the forefront of Israel’s campaign for stronger international sanctions against Iran to halt what Israeli and Western leaders fear is a drive to produce nuclear weapons, allegations Tehran denies.

Raising speculation Israel could defy its main ally, the United States, and attack Iran on its own, Barak has cautioned that Tehran was nearing a “zone of immunity” that would put deeply buried and fortified nuclear facilities out of reach of Israel’s military capabilities.

But last month, he told Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper that an immediate crisis was avoided when Iran chose to use more than a third of its medium-enriched uranium for civilian purposes earlier this year.

The decision, he said “allows contemplating delaying the moment of truth by eight to ten months”.

“LEADING ADVOCATE”

Dennis Ross, a veteran U.S. envoy and former Obama adviser, called Barak “perhaps the leading advocate for military action against Iran”.

“He has had very close relationships with his U.S. counterparts, and while that has had an influence on his readiness to act militarily against Iran, he has been prepared for a unilateral Israeli strike if he thought that would be necessary,” Ross told Reuters.

“Whoever would replace him in the next government will be hard-pressed to have the same stature or influence both with the prime minister (Netanyahu) and with us,” he said.

Barak is both Israel’s most-decorated soldier and embraced abroad since his breakneck peacemaking campaigns during a brief tenure as prime minister in the mid-1990s. He has lent public credibility to Netanyahu’s veiled threats to attack Iran should diplomacy fail to curb its disputed uranium enrichment.

But after Netanyahu, in a September speech at the United Nations, said Israel’s “red line” on Iran now fell in mid-2013, Barak signalled that any war with the Persian power could wait.

Israeli officials say contingency plans for Iran have been in place for months, awaiting a green light from the government.

Such open discourse over a showdown that would stretch Israel’s military capabilities to the limit suggested a possible bluff – or at least, that Netanyahu and Barak, both former commandos schooled in subterfuge, hoped to achieve some kind of tactical surprise when the time came to pull the trigger.

Some might see a ruse in the show of retiring Barak who, on the eve of Israel’s shock 2008-2009 war in Gaza, made an unannounced live appearance on a top-rated Israeli television satire, seemingly to help drop the Palestinians’ guard.

With two months remaining until the election and several more weeks for the new coalition government to be formed, Barak said on Monday he would continue to deal with “many challenges” on the national security front, leaving open the possibility he would be part of fresh military actions in the interim.

Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon of the Likud appears to be a front-runner to replace Barak after the election, should Netanyahu, as expected, form the next government.

He has sword-rattled about Iran more volubly than Barak and, while the defence minister spoke in favour of U.S. President Barack Obama before his reelection this month, Yaalon had accused the Democratic administration of being soft on Tehran.

Other candidates to succeed Barak, according to defence officials, include Avi Dichter, a former security chief who is now the Likud minister in charge of preparing the homefront for war, and Lieberman, currently foreign minister.

As the only centrist member of the governing coalition of right-wing and pro-settler parties, Barak has frequently visited Washington for talks with top U.S. officials and had criticised Netanyahu for airing differences with the United States.

In a statement, Netanyahu said he “respects Defence Minister Ehud Barak’s decision and thanks him for his cooperation in the government and highly appreciates his long-standing contribution to the security of the state”.

The Hamas movement ruling Gaza saw Barak’s decision to quit as proof that this month’s Israeli assault on the enclave was a disaster.

“This is evidence of the political and military failure that the government of Netanyahu and his defence minister suffered,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.

Israel has called its offensive a success, saying it destroyed most of Hamas’s long-range rocket arsenal and killed the Islamist group’s top militants.

If Israel cannot even annexe Gaza (though also return other lands not theirs) to the effect of having what effectively is a second Palestine, few would believe that Israel is going to fight Iran which has not been attacking Israel outright. Gaza conversely keeps attacking Israel with rockets but still exists. If Iran attacks Israel with rockets, Israel would go full scale against Iran. What gives? Proof of capability should be by annexing Gaza with as little casualties as possible. THEN Iran would take notice and take Israel seriously. If Israel cannot handle 100s of times smaller Gaza after decades, Israel sure as hell cannot handle 10s of times larger Iran.

JERUSALEM-ON-THE-LINE – November 27, 2012

“Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill.” Ps 3:1-4

ISRAEL SUCCESSFULLY TESTS DAVID’S SLING’S INTERCEPTOR: Israel has successfully conducted its first test of the David’s Sling’s Stunner interceptor missile, the Defense Ministry revealed Sunday night. David’s Sling is a missile defense system currently under development in Israel and the US. The system would defend against Iranian missiles such as the M600, the Zelzal, Fajr and Fateh 110 deployed heavily in Hizbullah hands in Lebanon as well as other missiles with a range between 43 miles and 186 miles. It is to become operational in 2014. (J.Post) “You are my hiding place and my shield: I hope in your word.” Ps 119:114

SATELLITES SHOW IRAN MOVING QUICKLY TO REARM HAMAS: Israeli intelligence satellites have spied the loading of rockets and other materiel believed to be destined for the Gaza Strip. According to the Sunday Times report, Iran began preparing the weapons shipment around the same time Israel and Hamas negotiated cease-fire understandings late last week. The shipment is said to include Iranian-made Fajr-5 medium-range rockets, the same model that was fired into the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas during Operation Pillar of Defense. Last month, following an air attack on a weapons plant near Khartoum, the Defense Ministry’s director of policy and political-military affairs accused Sudan of acting as a transit point for weapons shipments to Gaza. Amos Gilad accused Khartoum of aiding and abetting terrorism, and said the Sudanese regime was “supported by Iran” and was used as a route to transfer weapons to Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, via Egypt. Sudan accused Israel of attacking the military plant. The report also cited Israeli officials speculating that Iran could be moving longer-range ballistic missiles into Sudan, which could be aimed at Israel from the African country. Meanwhile, reports in Gaza said the Rafah smuggling tunnels, pummeled by the IAF over eight days, are already being rebuilt. (J.Post) “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.” Prov 26:11

AHMADINEJAD CONGRATULATES HAMAS ON ITS ‘VICTORY’: Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday congratulated Gaza’s Hamas chief, Ismail Haniyeh, on a “great victory” over Israel. Haniyeh in turn thanked Iran for its military aid and support. Haniyeh’s office said Ahmadinejad called late on Friday to praise Gaza’s “victory after eight days of Israeli aggression,” referring to Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense which targeted Hamas’ terror infrastructure in Gaza. “We stand beside the Palestinian people,” the Iranian president added. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani confirmed Iran had supplied military and financial aid to the Hamas terrorist group, which controls Gaza since taking power in a bloody coup in 2007. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief General Mohammad Ali Jafari added that Tehran had provided the technology for the Fajr 5 missiles used to target Tel Aviv. He said they were now being rapidly produced in Gaza. Iranian officials confirmed Iran will continue to support terrorist groups in Gaza and elsewhere that fight Israel. (INN) “He, that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” Prov 29:1

IDF CHIEF: DON’T WORRY, QUIET WILL LAST: IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz assured Israelis on Sunday there would be no more rocket fire from Gaza – “or else.” Speaking to new recruits Gantz recapped the recent Pillar of Defense counter terror operation in Gaza. He also described the ceasefire agreement that followed, pointedly assuring them the measures carried out a few days earlier would have a lasting effect. “The quiet will continue, and if not, we will resume our operations on whatever level is necessary,” Gantz said bluntly. In addition, Gantz addressed the apprehensions Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization may re-arm itself with newer rockets. The concern comes on the heels of an official confirmation by Iran that it has been exporting its missile technology, as well as “financial and military assistance” to terrorist groups in the region. The issue of Hamas attempting to increase its power is important, he said, but it is far from new. The IDF will continue to work towards disrupting the terrorist organization’s attempt to re-arm, Gantz said. (INN/Israel Today) Government and military decisions to agree to a premature ceasefire with the ruling Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip has severely shaken the confidence of Israel’s people in its leaders. As one Jerusalem news commentator pointed out: “There’s every possibility Hamas will recover and even enhance its military strength, and with the premature ceasefire having given the group a major boost of confidence, many Israelis are wondering what was the point of the limited aerial campaign their nation waged.” Pray for a truly deep and enduring shift to take place in the nation – one that will turn Jewish hearts to the only source of wisdom, help and deliverance that can be trusted – that of the God of Israel. “Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.” Ps 107:6

MORE RIOTING ON GAZA BORDER: There was more rioting on Sunday by Arabs near the fence separating Gaza and Israel. Voice of Israel radio reported that young Arabs approached the security fence near Khan Younis in the early evening, and that IDF soldiers fired warning shots in the air, as well as rubber-coated bullets toward whoever came too near to the fence. Three of the rioters were reportedly injured in the clashes. One Arab was killed on Friday in a similar incident along the Gaza fence. (Arutz-7) Pray these prowling Palestinian gangs along Israel’s security fence will be broken up and permanently dispersed, without achieving any of their destructive aims against the Jewish state.

HIZBULLAH SAYS IT COULD STRIKE ALL OF ISRAEL IN A FUTURE WAR: Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Sunday that thousands of rockets would rain down on Tel Aviv and cities across the Jewish state if it attacked Lebanon. Speaking four days after the ceasefire which ended a week of conflict between Israel and the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza, Nasrallah said Hizbullah’s response to any attack would dwarf the rocket fire launched from Palestinian territories. The Lebanese-based terrorist group, Hizbullah, which fought Israel in a 34-day war six years ago, says it has been re-arming since then and has a far deadlier arsenal than Hamas. Nasrallah has said Hizbullah could kill tens of thousands of people and strike anywhere inside Israel if hostilities break out again. The movement has warned any Israeli attack against the nuclear facilities of its patron Iran, which has armed and funded the Lebanese terrorist group as well as Hamas, would inflame the Middle East (Reuters) “The multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.” Isa 29:5

EGYPT’S POLITICAL FOES DIG IN THEIR HEELS: Supporters and opponents of Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi, on Sunday grew more entrenched in their potentially destabilizing battle over the Islamist leader’s move to assume near absolute powers, with neither side appearing willing to back down as the stock market plunged amid the fresh turmoil. Clashes between the two sides spilled onto the streets for a third day since the Islamist president issued edicts that make him immune to oversight of any kind, including that of the courts. A teenager was killed and dozens of people were wounded when a group of anti-Morsi protesters tried to storm the local offices of the political arm of the president’s Muslim Brotherhood in the Nile Delta city of Damanhoor. It was the first reported death from the street battles that erupted across much of the nation on Friday, the day after Morsi’s decrees were announced. The tensions also dealt a fresh blow to the economy, which has suffered due to the problems plaguing the Arab world’s most populous nation both prior to and since Mubarak’s ouster. (AP)

SYRIAN WAR SPILLS OVER INTO ISRAEL TWICE IN ONE DAY: The civil war in Syria spilled over into the Golan Heights in two separate incidents on Sunday. Residents in a religious Zionist town less than a kilometer from the border, reported on Sunday evening they heard explosions nearby, perhaps a result of a mortar shell that had been fired from Syria. The IDF said no evidence of a mortar had yet been identified. In a second incident on Sunday night, an IDF vehicle was hit by bullets fired from Syrian territory into Israel during the fighting between the sides. There were no injuries or damage. The IDF changed the rules of engagement along the northern border after the fighting in Syria spilled over into Israel more than once. The new orders instruct soldiers to respond if fire from Syria is dangerous and persistent. More than 40,000 people have been killed in 20 months of conflict between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and those fighting for his overthrow. About half the fatalities were civilians. (INN/J.Post)

ABBAS WARNS UN BID IS LAST CHANCE FOR PEACE: Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas claimed Saturday the entity’s renewed bid for UN membership is the “last chance” for Arab peace with Israel. The PA is hoping to create an independent, sovereign state in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and parts of Jerusalem that were restored to the Jewish capital in the 1967 Six-Day War. Previous efforts to evade the necessity of final status talks with Israel through application for membership in the UN have been stymied by Western nation, led by the United States. As head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which represents the PA to the United Nations, Abbas plans to apply for status as a non-member state. Such a designation would create a de facto recognition of the PA as an independent, sovereign country. It would also successfully circumvent the final status negotiations with Israel mandated by the internationally-recognized 1993 Oslo Accords signed by both parties. The PA chairman said Saturday he would submit the PA request for the status on November 29. (Arutz-7) Pray against this deceptive, manipulative, and entirely illegal scheme on the part of the Palestinian Authority to achieve statehood, via the UN, while sidestepping negotiations with Israel.

Blessings from Jerusalem,

Barry Segal with the Editorial Staff

As international speakers and messengers of the Good News through music, Barry and Batya Segal are at the forefront of what God is doing in the present day nation of Israel. With strong ties in both the nations and Jerusalem, the Segals are weaving the deepest roots of our biblical heritage together with the fresh Spirit-filled worship of today to create their rich harmony of Scripture and song.

The Segals have a vast vision for God’s purposes in the nations and to the people of Israel. In fact, their longing to help rebuild Israel both spiritually and physically inspired them to pioneer the non-profit charity organization, Vision for Israel and The Joseph Storehouse. This arm of their ministry focuses on assisting the poor and needy, widows and orphans, and reaching out to the new Jewish immigrants coming into the land of Israel. Vision ‘s most challenging project to date is “The Joseph Storehouse®”, humanitarian aid center, located in the hills of Jerusalem. The Joseph Storehouse functions as a channel of blessing to all of Israel, Jewish and Arab, through the gathering and distribution of emergency medical supplies, food, clothing, and other basic life necessities. USA office contact info: Vision for Israel, PO Box 7743, Charlotte NC 28241, 866-351-0075. The Segal’s web site is

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

. . . HIZBULLAH SAYS IT COULD STRIKE ALL OF ISRAEL IN A FUTURE WAR . . .

A man who inhumanely slaughtered a pig in his front yard before butchering it has been convicted of animal cruelty charges.

A shocked RSPCA officer found former boxer Ricky Clarkson, 48, cutting up the animal on a table in the front yard of his house in May this year after being called to the property by a neighbour.

He initially said he had killed the pig by hammering a nail through its head before later changing his story and telling a court he had slit its throat.
Butchered: After catching Ricky Clarkson butchering the pig in his front yard, RSPCA officers found parcels of pork chops in his freezer when they returned with a warrant to search his property

Butchered: After catching Ricky Clarkson butchering the pig in his front yard, RSPCA officers found parcels of pork chops in his freezer when they returned with a warrant to search his property

When RSPCA officers returned 10 days later with a search warrant, they found parcels of pig meat stored in a freezer, the remnants of a carcass in a recycling bin and several knives in a shed.

Mr Clarkson, of Bradmore Way, Coulsdon, south London, then denied having killed the pig with a nail and said he had ‘slit its throat, Halal-style’, Bromley Magistrates Court heard.

He said he was unaware of laws stipulating that pigs should be shot with a stun gun prior to being killed.

Andrew Wiles, prosecuting, said: ‘You are allowed to home-slaughter if you follow the regulations. You did not do that. You are coming up with your story today now you know what those regulations are.’

Cruelty: Officers found several knives in Mr Clarkson’s shed when they returned to search the property

Mr Clarkson, defending himself, said he had used a captive bolt gun to stun the pig before killing it but had lied to officers because he feared prosecution for possessing the gun.

He said: ‘I kill animals law-abidingly and honestly.’

He said he planned to eat the pig and had also shot kangaroos in the past.
Saved from the chop: The RSCPA rescued this pig from Mr Clarkson’s house after he was banned from keeping in animals for a year

Saved from the chop: The RSCPA rescued this pig from Mr Clarkson’s house after he was banned from keeping animals for a year

He denied causing unnecessary suffering to an animal by killing it in an inhumane manner, failing to prevent suffering to an animal that was his responsibility and killing a pig without prior stunning.

But magistrates found him guilty of all three charges and banned him from owning pigs, sheep or chickens for a year.

He was also fined £150 and ordered to pay £1,000 costs.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Change the law for ownership of bolt guns. Every meat eating person should learn how to slaughter their own food. There is if course the option to wait for natural death of the food animal, but the costs would rise tremendously, though spiritually this would be as as good as vegetarianism (died of natural causes) if the animal had lived in generally pleasant (non-battery-like surroundings). BTW, the chicken meat eater does more harm than a dog meat eater simply by virtue of the living conditions of the animal before slaughter! Dogs probably were wandering freely as opposed to battery chickens!

This is a disgrace!! …..how can someone be convicted for making yummy chops? …..the RSPCA should be shut down!

– Rich T , London, 28/11/2012 14:02

Haha at the ‘Halal-style’ slaughter. It’s a pig for goodness sake, anything but halal! – SarahIslam , Blackburn, 28/11/2012 12:29 ===== Yes, Sarah, we all know that pigs are haran – but other animals are killed halal-style or, indeed, kosher-style. The method of killing is still the same.

An official from the Ministry of Civil Affairs warned on Monday that it might take compulsory measures to ensure the dead were buried in accordance with regulations, following ongoing incidence of illegally-built tombs and graves.

The Regulation of Funeral Management, was issued by the State Council on Nov 16, stipulating that tombs and cemeteries should not be built on arable farmland, in forests, or at scenic spots.

He Qingxun, director of the funeral management section of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said in an interview with xinhuanet.com that the civil affairs authorities could apply to the courts to take compulsory measures if tombs were illegally built.

Law of Land Management rules stipulate that those who build tombs on arable farmland can be punished.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Single tombs OR family cemeteries could be built on PRIVATELY OWNED AND FREEHOLD arable farmland (private residential properties also should be allowed, provided the graves do not occupy more than 50% of the land area, for arable farmland, no more than 25%). As for public forests, or at public scenic spots the prohibition is reasonable. This SAVES citizen funds which could circulate in the economy than being given to already wealthy cemetary running company people, and helps in preventing extreme sequestration of wealth by any licensed cemetaries especially those which only lease cemetaries which need to be paid for with very high premiums after a period of several decades.

So it should come as no surprise that Trump wants to build a luxurious, three-acre cemetery on one of his golf courses for himself, his family and members of his country club.

Still, it’s somewhat jarring to read about Trump’s ambitious plans.

The Bedminster Township Committee will consider Trump’s application to construct two lots of cemeteries at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. One lot will be .28 acres and have 82 cemetery plots, while the other will be 2.65 acres and have 942 plots. The cemeteries are intended for the Trump family as well as lifetime members of the country club. According to NJ.com, membership fees for the club can be as much as $300,000.

And if you think that is over-the-top, this is actually a scaled-down version of what Trump originally wanted. In 2007 he applied for a family mausoleum to be built alongside the course’s first hole. According to NJ.com, the plans called for a 19-foot tall stone structure with four obelisks surrounding its exteriors and a small altar with six vaults inside. Local officials nixed that plan, calling it “gaudy and out of step with the town’s rural character.”

Trump also owns golf courses in Puerto Rico and Scotland, but the course in Bedminster is perhaps the most luxurious.

“I wanted to build this course to the absolute highest standards in golf,” Trump said in May. “If the choice is ever made to [hold the U.S. Open here], I know it would do fantastically well. If that should happen, it would be a great honor.”

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Unlike the high density acloves in Columbariums, 3 Acres should be more than enough for after Trump passes on for a comfy haunting space.

ARTICLE 13

I want to be a porn star – November 26, 2012

NOV 26 — At least, that’s what seems to be on some people’s minds.

Internet porn is so prevalent that they are creating .xxx domains for porn sites. All the .com domain of porn sites will move to the new .xxx domain — which just goes to show how large this industry has become.

At the time of writing, the controversial news of the blog entitled “Sumptious Erotica” is no longer in the headlines but people still talk about it.

By now, everybody knows that the couple — one was an Asean scholar (but since his blog made the news, his scholarship has been revoked) studying at the National University of Singapore while the other is his girlfriend — posted pictures and videos of their sexual exploits on their blog.

Just because anyone can post online, this couple decided to post sexually explicit content on their blog site. Although Alvin Tan has since apologised to NUS for bringing disrepute to the university, we can see how the Internet exposes us to pornographic materials.

According to the DailyTech website, one-third of the Internet is filled with pornographic material. Meanwhile, TheWeek.com reports there are 28,000 Internet users viewing porn every second, and that there are 1,536 websites that distribute child pornography (according to Internet Watch Foundation), and one in seven youths reports being solicited for sex online and 43 per cent of Internet users view pornographic materials online.

While porn used to be associated with dark, dingy establishments that only sleazy men seem to enter, today any Tom, Dick and Harry can have access to pornographic material online.

The Forrester Research published a report on the online adult content industry and pegged it at US$75 million (RM232 million) to US$1 billion. That’s the equivalent to some Third World countries’ GDP and that research is outdated. No one has tried to estimate the value of the online porn industry as it has become difficult to track buying habits of porn fans.

But what does this mean to young adults?

Youths increasingly think sex is nothing and have no qualms displaying their bedroom antics in public. After all, Alvin boasted he was getting offers to star in porn movies.

Pray tell, what hot-blooded young man wouldn’t want his day job to require him having sex all day — and getting paid for it? Okay, some men actually dream of changing the world but that’s another story.

And what about young women?

Porn actress Sasha Grey said on “The Tyra Banks Show” that her porn films are “sex positive” and encouraged women to explore their sexuality. The question running through my head is this: if an Asean scholar can be proud of being offered a part in porn movies, what hope do mere mortals have?

This has nothing to do with ASEAN scholars who tend to be apparatchik linked bureaucrats’ children and cronies of government colluding suppliers and contractors who do not need to compete with the non-scholars even in this area. Any uneducated person with the looks and sexuality will be no mere mortal. At least the beautiful people of the world have an additional option barring ‘ugliness/freaky’ porn which also enables a better life from sheer volume.

ARTICLE 14

Female porn stars have higher self-esteem and better quality of life than other women, according to new study – by Lucy Waterlow – PUBLISHED: 16:34 GMT, 26 November 2012 | UPDATED: 16:38 GMT, 26 November 2012

Positive outlook: Adult film stars like Jenna Jameson, pictured, were found to have a better quality of life in a recent study

A study published this week has debunked the stereotypical portrayal of porn actresses as ‘damaged goods’ who enter the adult entertainment industry because they suffer from low esteem or have been victims of childhood sexual abuse.

The report in the Journal of Sex Research found that porn stars are not more likely to have psychological problems than other women.

In fact, they discovered those in the sex entertainment industry had a more positive outlook on life with higher self-confidence and more flattering views on their body image.

Researchers at Pennsylvania’s Shippensburg University, Texas Woman’s University and the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation said they found no evidence to support the ‘damaged goods hypothesis’ that all porn actresses have come from backgrounds of sexual abuse.

What the Dickens? Erotic fiction is 4,000% more popular than high quality literature as passion for ‘mummy porn’ sees off the classics
Rowan Pelling’s sex advice column: My boyfriend can’t get over my fling…even though we were on a break

‘Some descriptions of actresses in pornography have included attributes such as drug addiction, homelessness, poverty, desperation and being victims of sexual abuse.

‘Some have made extreme assertions, such as claiming that all women in pornography were sexually abused as children,’ the report states.

But ‘there were no differences in incidence of childhood sexual abuse’ between the porn actresses questioned and the cross section of ‘average’ women, according to their findings.
High self-esteem: Porn actresses had more self-confidence and were happy with their body image compared to the other women questioned (posed by model)

The report, entitled Pornography Actresses: An Assessment of the Damaged Goods Hypothesis, adds these stereotypes have been embraced by anti-porn campaigners even though they found no evidence to support the view that porn actresses are less psychologically stable then other women.

‘Stereotypes of those involved in adult entertainment have been used to support or condemn the industry and to justify political views on pornography, although the actual characteristics of actresses are unknown because no study on this group of women has been conducted,’ the report explains.

For the study, the researchers compared 177 adult entertainment actresses aged from 18 to 50 with women of the same age, ethnicity and marital status who are not in the porn industry.

The average time the women questioned had spent working in the sex entertainment industry was three-and-a-half years with all of them being paid to work on at least one X-rated movie.

More than one-third were either married or in a serious relationship, while 44 per cent were single.

The study compared their sexual behaviour and attitutes, self-esteem, quality of life and drug use with the ‘average’ women.

The adult entertainers were found to have higher self-esteem with more positive views on their body image.
Protesters: The researchers said they didn’t find evidence to support anti-porn campaigners views that women in the industry are more likely to have a background of childhood sexual abuse

Protesters: The researchers said they didn’t find evidence to support anti-porn campaigners views that women in the industry are more likely to have a background of childhood sexual abuse

They also had greater levels of spirituality and were rated as having a better quality of life because they slept better and had more energy.

Almost 70 per cent said they had a fulfilling sex life compared to 33 per cent of the other women.

In terms of their sexual history, the report found that the porn actresses had more sexual partners, were more likely to be bisexual and had become sexually active at a younger age – the average being 15 years compared to 17 for the non-porn industry workers.

While the report challenged the stereotype of porn actresses as drug addicts, drug use was found to be more prevalent among the entertainers. They were more likely to have tried ten different types of drugs compared to the control group.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Do differentiate between non-GMO ORGANIC drugs which most of humanity used before the industrial era and SYNTHETIC DRUGS which do not break down naturally.

A group of naturists admire the view from a hilltop on the outskirts of Beijing. Photos provided to China Daily

China’s naturists often fantasize about baring it all in the sun and the wind, but secluded and safe places are hard to find and public acceptance is equally lacking. Raymond Zhou takes a closer look at the bare facts.

Autumn offers the best weather for Beijing. In 2009, a group of six people took advantage of the golden autumn days and drove 120 kilometers to a far suburb of the capital city in search of a place where they cannot be seen.

They were naturists, who go with the intention of strolling about in their birthday suits in the embrace of Mother Nature.

One of them had discovered a mountain in Huairou, to the northeast of central Beijing. There were no tourists, and they picked a trail with no traces of other humans. After climbing up for half an hour, they came to a giant flat rock. It seemed ideal for sunbathing au naturel.

Before they could totally relax, however, they were visited by a large swarm of wasps. The insects seemed especially attracted to the two female members of the group. While fending off the winged invaders, the naturists found to their dismay that they themselves had trespassed. There were two hornets’ nests beneath the rock.

As they left the place and trekked deeper into the mountain, they stumbled onto more wildlife — a swarm of butterflies and a lone snake. Finally, they settled on a spot under a chestnut tree. Using twigs as a temporary fence so that insects would climb up rather than sneak in, the group put towels on the trodden grass and started taking off their clothes.

The best thing about this spot was, they could see people coming up, but not vice versa. The worst thing: It was too cramped for comfort.

This episode is typical of the dilemma faced by China’s growing numbers of naturists.

Bare necessities

In a country with more than 1.3 billion people, it is not easy to find a public space that is naturally secluded. Wherever you go, you are likely to run into someone who is not ready to accept social nudity, or worse, who is prone to interpret such acts as hooliganism, a vague term in China that may encompass anything from sexual harassment to graffiti.

According to Fang Gang, an expert on sex and gender issues, it is impossible to estimate the number of naturists in China, but he speculates the potential is massive.

For Chinese naturists, finding a public space that is naturally secluded is always a challenge. Photo provided to China Daily

“Anyone who went skinny-dipping while on an overseas excursion is basically a naturist,” he says. Likewise, nobody knows how many naturist groups China has because none has been officially registered.

In online forums, there are many groups with a proclaimed interest in naturism. But Fang explains that most of them only talk about it. Nothing will come out of it, he says.

A few would organize meetings, not the clothing optional type, but fully dressed, for more talks about the possibility of arranging something. Out of those, a very small fraction may truly do something like the autumn getaway described above.

Fang Gang, whose recent book on naturism is the first in the country to tackle the phenomenon, argues that existing Chinese laws do not make this kind of public nudity illegal.

The most frequently cited law says: Anyone who molests others or intentionally exposes oneself in a public place and causes bad consequences will be subject to detention of more than five days but less than 10 days.

Fang interprets it as a law which targets exhibitionists who expose their private parts to harass another person.

“Naturists care only about their own state of dressing and do not intend to target any outsiders. They do not have an object for violation,” he says.

As a matter of fact, China’s naturists go out of their way to avoid what they call the “textile public”. That is why it is so troublesome for them to find a natural enclave where they can rest or play sports stark naked.

Usually when a naturist bumps into a non-naturist in the wilderness, he will cover himself with his backpack and let the other person pass. The clothed person, who might be startled, ideally understands what’s been encountered and moves on.

It only becomes a problem when the police or media get alerted, says Fang. The cops may come and drive away the naturists if it is a regular hangout; or the media may report on it, eliciting derision and outcries from the public.

“Anyone who went skinny-dipping while on an overseas excursion is basically a naturist,” he says. Likewise, nobody knows how many naturist groups China has because none has been officially registered.

In online forums, there are many groups with a proclaimed interest in naturism. But Fang explains that most of them only talk about it. Nothing will come out of it, he says.

A few would organize meetings, not the clothing optional type, but fully dressed, for more talks about the possibility of arranging something. Out of those, a very small fraction may truly do something like the autumn getaway described above.

Fang Gang, whose recent book on naturism is the first in the country to tackle the phenomenon, argues that existing Chinese laws do not make this kind of public nudity illegal.

The most frequently cited law says: Anyone who molests others or intentionally exposes oneself in a public place and causes bad consequences will be subject to detention of more than five days but less than 10 days.

Fang interprets it as a law which targets exhibitionists who expose their private parts to harass another person.

“Naturists care only about their own state of dressing and do not intend to target any outsiders. They do not have an object for violation,” he says.

As a matter of fact, China’s naturists go out of their way to avoid what they call the “textile public”. That is why it is so troublesome for them to find a natural enclave where they can rest or play sports stark naked.

Usually when a naturist bumps into a non-naturist in the wilderness, he will cover himself with his backpack and let the other person pass. The clothed person, who might be startled, ideally understands what’s been encountered and moves on.

It only becomes a problem when the police or media get alerted, says Fang. The cops may come and drive away the naturists if it is a regular hangout; or the media may report on it, eliciting derision and outcries from the public.

“But after the police and the media are gone, the naturists will come back. Local authorities turn a blind eye,” he says. “The nude beach in Sanya was shut down in 2008 when it made headlines, but there’s a lot of clothing-free activities there now.”

He also visited the famous nudist park on Harbin’s Sun Island. It turned out to be a very isolated patch inside the mammoth park that takes great effort to locate.

Fang says, to his knowledge, no one in China has ever been punished for naturist activities.

“The most the police would do is to banish a naturist from a public premise.”

There have been several reported incidents involving artists, who use streaking or other forms of nudism for artistic creation, but these were officially banned. The online public tends to label them “strange”, “crazy” or “perverse”.

The biggest misconception about naturism, insists Fang Gang, who has written some 50 books on sexology, is sex.

While the public predominantly sees naturism as a precursor to sex, naturists contend that pure naturism is anything but sex.

Fang Gang argues that nude is a natural state. Except for the most physically attractive among us, he says, clothing enhances sexual appeal while total nudity would do the opposite.

Those who want to use social nudism for sexcapades are in for a rude awakening.

A Beijing naturist with the nickname Piggy has participated in a few clothing-optional outings. He says the kind of group atmosphere is not inductive to sexual fantasy.

“Everyone knows where the line is, and nobody wants to cross it. People may tell a few dirty jokes, but that’s not different from a regular group trip.”

However, in online bulletin boards, one of the most frequent questions that pop up is about sexual arousal: “What if I have an erection in front of others, especially females?”

Naturists interviewed for Fang’s book claim this is extremely rare. Most have never encountered it. For those few who have witnessed it, they say it’s usually handled by temporarily covering oneself with a towel.

“It quickly goes away,” they add.

Naturist forums strictly ban the posting of photos of a sexual nature. In a nudist colony, one is not supposed to leer at another person or say anything provocative.

No sexual activities are allowed in public, not even between couples. Some groups even prohibit dancing or alcohol drinking for fear that they may lead to fondling.

Many approach naturist groups with sexual curiosity. For example, many men would inquire about female members in a group. They would back away once they find out no female has signed up for a group gathering.

On the other hand, the appearance of a pretty young woman would invariably attract a lot of attention.

A 24-year-old Beijing woman named Xiu-xiu went to a group spa, her first nudist event, and disrobed while eating. Some men noticed this and joked that she was “burning with sexual desire”.

“Nothing is pure,” she says afterwards. “It is human nature. But why can men walk around bare-chested and women cannot?”

Among those who lean toward nudism but balk at taking it all off are people uncomfortable with their own bodies. “I’d do it if I’m physically fit,” some would say.

In a larger picture, Chinese society, unlike the ancient Greeks, does not celebrate the human body. While some can accept the aesthetic beauty of the supermodel type in artistically tasteful arrangements, most tend to treat a regular nude as an ugly sight, something to be covered up.

There is essentially no tradition in China of enjoying the nude for what it is — other than a sexual object.

There are occasions where public nudity is accepted, such as in public bathhouse where people of the same gender shower or bathe together without any awkwardness. But with widespread indoor plumbing and private bathrooms, this, too, is dying out.

“Most people believe nudism has to be associated with sex,” says Fang Gang. “Deep down, we still adopt an attitude of mystery and sexual objectification toward nudism. And beyond that, we tend to paint sex in a negative light.”

Li Yinhe, another renowned sexologist, says that Chinese culture has always been conservative toward nudity with the possible exception of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) with its sexually suggestive fashion and dance moves.

“Whether you regard the human body as beautiful or ugly, it should not be used as a moral guide for nudism.

The bottom line is whether such an activity infringes on others. If nudism does not hurt others, it is not immoral.

Even if 99 percent of the population may not like it, they should still respect the choice of the 1 percent,” Li says.

Meanwhile, many Chinese naturists admit they are made to “feel like thieves”, either in private homes or stripping just long enough in nature to take a photo or two.

All they want, says Fang Gang, is a natural environment that is relatively private, maybe an uninhabited island.

Contact the writer at raymondzhou@chindadaily.com.cn.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Ok, USA seriously needs to keep up with the Chinese Human Rights Joneses now. The ‘Nudist Challenge’ simply is to zone spaces (probably natural settings, but even urban settings could work if the preference is there) in appropriate size to the registered communities. The ‘Morally Affluent’ in USA have been terming nudists as ‘Human Form of Vermin’ long enough. Time for ‘Barry Stark’ to take over appropriate districts in all state capitals if ‘Iron Man Suits’ are to have any chance of besting China based on per capita number of nudists, so pay attention boffins, heres your fine example of ‘Chaos Physics’ . . .

Yes, we all know that we’re more likely to be struck by lightning or attacked by a shark than to win one of the lottery’s biggest jackpots.

But the bad odds didn’t stop readers this week from dreaming about what they would do if they had been the biggest winners of the $580 million Powerball drawing on Wednesday night.

A post this week on how you could amend your holiday shopping list if you raked in the big jackpot got readers talking about how they could improve their lives – and the lives of others – with hundreds of millions of dollars.

Follow @todaymoney

Of the nearly 20,000 people who took our survey, more than half said their No.1 goal would be to buy a really nice house.

“A new home for my parents to move in with me in their old age then remodel my old home and donate it to homeless veterans,” one reader wrote.

Many readers said their first impulse would be to help others, in addition to themselves.

“I’d make sure every kid in my county had a good meal, decent clothes, supplies, and something fun–just for starters,” one reader wrote.

Others said they’d like to give back to organizations that have helped them in the past.

“My gift would be to donate a majority to Children’s Hospital -Wisconsin. They saved my kid’s life and I will never be able to repay them,” one grateful reader wrote.

Many readers had modest dreams, involving the things and people they loved.

“Nothing too fancy. I would like my ’66 Chevy truck fully restored, a decent house with a shop, and then a historic tour through Europe,” one reader wrote.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Try this one. Set up a string of banks in USA’s largest cities based on the next article’s response (ARTICLE 17). Prestigious and helpful to set up, and also a much needed and long overdue slap in the face of the greed minded extremist-Capitalists. USA is not about Capitalism and enriching CEOs. USA is about freedom.

ARTICLE 17

Sen. Sanders: Wall Street CEOs are the ‘Faces of Class Warfare’ – Common Dreams staff – Published on Friday, November 30, 2012 by Common Dreams

Incredulous that Wall Street investment bankers and billionaire CEOs have descended on Washington in the midst of ongoing budget talks to tell Americans that they should “lower their expectations” when it comes to the security of their retirement and future health care, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders took to the Senate floor Thursday to call out the audacity of corporate-minded millionaires and billionaires, calling them the new “face of class warfare” in the United States.

“I find it literally beyond comprehension, that we have folks from Wall Street who received huge bailouts from the people of our country—from working families in this country—because of the greed and recklessness and illegal behavior, which Wall Street did to drive us into this recession, and now these very same people are coming here to Congress to lecture us and the American people about how we have to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid while they enjoy huge salaries and retirement benefits.”

Sanders specifically called out CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, who has recently been making both the media rounds and consulting with lawmakers regarding the ongoing tax and budget debate in Washington during the current lame duck session. Blankfein, one of the highest paid executives on Wall Street and worth hundred of millions personally, made the comments about ‘lowered expectations’ in a recent evening news interview with CBS and said that average Americans should understand that the US simply can’t “afford” to maintain programs like Social Security and Medicare.

The facts of such sentiments, as many economists repeatedly point out, are false, but Sanders said that Blankfein delivered the familiar rightwing trope “with all the sympathy for someone struggling to get by on $14,000-a-year retirement that you’d expect from a Wall Street banker paid $16 million last year.”(Background image via New York Magazine)

Blankfein is also a member of the CEO cabal that has come together under the banner ‘Fix The Debt’ to protect the historically low tax rates of the nation’s wealthy elite while simultaneously calling for the slashing of social programs. As the Huffington Post reports:

CEOs including Blankfein have been warning that the fiscal cliff could hurt business investment, hiring and the economy as a whole, and they have been calling for cuts to the social safety net to avert it. Dozens of major CEOs, including Blankfein, are members of the CEO council of the campaign Fix the Debt, which calls for cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and vague Social Security reform to address the deficit. More than 80 CEOs, including Blankfein, also signed a recent letter calling for deficit reduction.

But as a recent report from the Institute for Policy Studies aimed to show, the ‘Fix the Debt’ campaign, which has raised $60 million to lobby for a debt deal that “would reduce corporate taxes and shift costs onto the poor and elderly,” is really just a Trojan horse designed to use an invented debt crisis to achieve long-held agenda goals.

“Think about the arrogance of these guys on Wall Street who were bailed out by the middle class of this country when their greed and recklessness nearly destroyed the financial system and now they come to Capitol Hill to lecture Congress and the American people about the need to cut programs for working families.” — Sen. Bernie Sanders

The CEOs involved in the group, including Blankfein, are trying to “pass themselves off as noble leaders who are willing to compromise in order the save America from financial ruin,” explain co-authors of the report Scott Klinger and Sarah Anderson. But the reality is that these CEOs are “leveraging the ‘Fiscal Cliff'” in order to push age old attempts to avoid paying taxes at the expense of those in need, they say.

And, as Ezra Klein points out in a recent Bloomberg op-ed, the US has an ‘austerity crisis’ not a ‘debt crisis’. Klein argues that employing the much-used term “fiscal cliff” mistates the nature of the financial and policy realities. Worse, he says, the term “provides no hint of how to solve it.”

He says, “I prefer the term ‘austerity crisis,’ which at least describes the real issue — too much austerity, imposed too quickly.”

Called by its true name or not, the CEOs behind ‘Fix the Debt’—with Lloyd Blankfein and Honeywell’s David Cote leading the charge— are using the generated panic around the talks as a way to impose their own interests and have proven unafraid to speak boldly and use their fast resources to make their case.

However, what Klinger and Anderson call ‘leverage’, Sanders simply called arrogance Thursday.

“Think about the arrogance of these guys on Wall Street who were bailed out by the middle class of this country when their greed and recklessness nearly destroyed the financial system and now they come to Capitol Hill to lecture Congress and the American people about the need to cut programs for working families,” he said

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Banks take your money and return you 1-3% in FLAT interest in most areas of the world. But what most people fail to connect is that the bank takes the money you deposit and lends THE SAME MONEY to a loan taker at up to 20% COMPOUND interest. This means banks get a 10 times the premium on what you get in interest ON YOUR MONEY. So 99%ters please do yourself a favour and either :

– NOT deposit your cash in the bank
– store in actual gold which does not drop in value – any respectable country should have that facility for state protected gold sales
– do not buy from banks PASS BOOK Gold ‘ON REPUTATION’, the government has colluded even while selling actual gold in many cases (in most cases and the bank will act as if they can deliver the actual gold which they do not have)
– OR set up a people’s cooperative bank in your local community

A people’s cooperative bank in your local community that REWARDS the depositors with at very least 50% of what the bank makes YEARLY in redistributed interest from loan profits (no loans given out means no profits btw) AND NOT give massive bonuses to CEOs or Exec staff more than 1% of the bank’s profits instead. (That same money could have been given as high INTEREST RATES for all depositors but instead the idiot 1% CEO gets the payout)

While a cooperative’s poorer paying bank (this is a bank for degree holders with a conscience) might not attract ‘brand name’ CEOs, financially the DEPOSITORS get the better deal and the bank will not be BILLIONS in debt while propped up by the state. Any private bank may set up any rules or rates, and the first rule should be that the any GOOD/HONEST BANK should apply/ackhnowledgge before setting rates is that THE DEPOSITOR’S CAPITAL IS THE BASIS OF THE BANK’S ABILITY TO LEND.

The base required capital for a bank to be set up is generally a few million, nothing a bunch of 401K citizens could set up in several man band (rebels of the banking system no less much like the difference between punk bands out of a back of a van as opposed to 950 sterling seat ticket concerts), though the cooperative must be fully prepared for saboteurs taking loans and all other dirty tricks INCLUDING government collusion in preventing setting up of the bank to protect collusive interests between term limitless bureaucrats and term limitless politicians. Finally public listing means a bank is a gambling machine with overinflated value that can disappear as fast as stockholders run and is liable to sabotage. A stock listed bank is far more dangerous than a non-stock listed bank due to false flag acquisitions and ‘majority stockholders’ (who doubtless will use the red ocean mindset on the bank’s assets), though the branch issue could be a problem unless similarly structures cooperatives begin cooperating worldwide.

Vermont – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Vermont is the 6th least extensive and the 2nd least populous of the 50 United States of America … (low density means a good life that allowed the people living there to retain high ideals, as for lest extensive that might foster community awareness . . . the environment colours the citizens, and as opposed to NTDBF (no prizes for the acronym) Singapore, – in Penang, guess what colours this writer learnt . . . but greener pastures await if Lynas doesn’t destroy one of the last rainforest reserves in the world first from the city out . . .)

JOHOR BAHARU, Nov 29 – KPJ Healthcare Bhd, a member of Johor Corporation (JCorp) Group, continues its aggressive expansion in the regional healthcare market by acquiring a substantial stake in a Thailand hospital.

Its Chairman Kamaruzzaman Abu Kassim said KPJ forked out RM63 million to buy 23 per cent of multi specialty private healthcare provider, Vejthani Hospital, in Bangkok.

The 500-bed hospital is famous for its specialty in orthopaedic treatment.

“The stake acquisition in a Thailand Hospital will expand KPJ’s reach within Asean’s healthcare market. The potential profit contribution from Vejthani Hospital is expected to enhance KPJ Group’s earnings in the future,” said Kamaruzzaman, who is also JCorp President and Chief Executive, to reporters after attending KPJ’s extraordinary general meeting.

He said the stake acquisition would be fulfilled via internal-generated funds but the transaction was expected to increase the company’s gearing by about six per cent by the second quarter of next year.

KPJ bought the stake from a private equity fund.

According to Vejthani Hospital’s website, it handled about 300,000 patients annually, with its share of international patients coming from 40 different countries worldwide.

He said efforts to grow KPJ’s medical tourism segment was continuing, with the company targeting to raise the revenue contribution from the segment to as high as 25 per cent by 2020.

Besides Malaysia where it owned 22 private specialist hospitals, KPJ also has a presence in Indonesia with two hospitals in Jakarta and a retirement and aged care resort called Jeta Gardens in Brisbane, Australia.

Meanwhile, Managing Director Datin Paduka Siti Sa’diah Sheikh Bakir, who was also present at the media conference, said apart from local parties, KPJ also received enquiries from foreign parties wanting the company to have a presence in their countries.

The second resolution was on the proposed disposal of two pieces of land in Johor Baharu by KPJ’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Puteri Specialist Hospital (Johor) Sdn Bhd, to Al-’Aqar Healthcare REIT for a total cash consideration of RM3.6 million.

The last resolution in today’s EGM was on the proposed acquisition of a parcel of vacant commercial land in Mukim Tebrau, Johor Baharu, by Renalcare Perubatan (M) Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned unit of KPJ from Johor Land Bhd for RM45 million.

The purchase of the land in Bandar Dato Onn was to enable KPJ to build a 150-bed private hospital, costing RM100 million, by early next year and be completed by 2015.

KPJ’s Bandar Dato Onn Hospital was one of the six hospitals the company planned to build throughout the country, which was under the ambit of the government’s Entry Point Projects (EPP). – Bernama

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Guess those white (or any well informed) VIPs won’t want to go to Thailand anymore. Knowing what some Muslets are like, every VIP who steps into that Thai hospital (or any hospital with strong funding from certain regions) will have their brains scanned and their souls converted to Islam (not very effective but mostly mind control form – that is why there are suicide bombers only in Islam IMHO . . . 3rd world types brainwashed into violent natures and terrorism . . . ). We can imagine the form this will take, the committee will give face by allowing in Muslim medical personnel and well, we all know where that goes from here don’t we? Subverted citizens haplessly unaware of Muslet involvement in medical industry in Thailand. Guesss India or even China will take over or medical tourism here on. Poor Thailand, not very careful and this could be LGBT hate inspired in a very chilling manner, with inhumane intent! One thing we have learn from living in a Muslim country (look into the soul of this one specifically to know the dangers of a Muslet riddled medical institution), much less medical tourism or something scarier in the article below . . .

He was a previously well 49 year-old man who developed a mild undiagnosed respiratory illness while visiting Saudi Arabia during August 2012, which fully resolved. He subsequently presented to a physician in Qatar on 3 September, with cough, myalgia and arthralgia, and was prescribed oral antibiotics. Five days later, he was admitted to a Qatari hospital with fever (38.4 °C) and hypoxia, with oxygen saturation of 91% on room air. A chest X-ray showed bilateral lower zone consolidation. He was treated with ceftriaxone, azithromycin and oseltamivir. After 48 hours, he required intubation and ventilation and was transferred by air ambulance to London. During transfer, he was clinically unstable, requiring manual ventilation.

Mounts says when the first two infections with this virus were spotted, in June and then September, both men had been in Mecca, Saudia Arabia, before they got sick. As such the chance existed that the source of infection — which is currently unknown — was only found there.

But the newest infections show that isn’t possible. Some of the Saudi cases had not been to Mecca before they got sick. They live in and fell ill in Riyadh, the capital. And the most recent case from Qatar lives in Doha and had not recently travelled outside the country.

The above comments raise questions about a Mecca source for the novel betacornavirus reported in the past few months. The first set of comments (in red) is from a Eurosuveillance report on the first confirmed case (49M) from Qatar. Although the patient developed a severe illness more than 10 days after returning from a visit to Saudi Arabia, a mild respiratory illness developed while in Saudi Arabia, raising concerns that the coronavirus isolated after transfer to London caused the mild disease in Saudi Arabia and then caused the more severe symptoms when the patient relapsed.

The second set of comments (in blue) cite a WHO technical representative, who notes that both of the initial confirmed cases had traveled to Mecca prior to symptoms, raising concerns that these initial cases were linked to infections in Mecca that were linked to preparations for the Hajj which includes visits to Mecca and Medina by pilgrims who journey to Saudi Arabia from many countries outside of the Middle East including Indonesia, Pakistan, and India. The brother of the surviving case 49F indicated his brother went to Mecca for Umrah week.

This linkage of the Qatar case to the Hajj may have precipitated the curious comments in an October 22 ProMed report by Dr Ziad Memish who is the Deputy Minister of Public Health for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as well as Director for WHO Collaborating Center for Mass Gatherings. Memish was concerned that ProMED was reporting notifiable diseases outside of normal channels and noted that there was more of a story to tell. Although KSA reported the two cases above, the reports on subsequent cases lacked detail. The third case was hospitalized in Riyadh and was recovering, but no age, gender, or dates were released. The same was true for the fourth case, which was also in Riyadh and media reports indicated the KSA MoH noted the cases had no serious consequences, yet two relatives of the fourth case had died after renal failure. Renal failure was also reported for the first two confirmed cases as well as about 5% of SARS cases in 2003. Most of the SARS CoV cases with renal failure died.

Similarly, WHO described the recent cases from Saudi Arabia as well as the second case from Qatar, while withholding age, gender, and dates. The WHO report did indicate that two of the confirmed cases were epidemiologically linked to each other as well as two additional symptomatic family members. The untested family member (70M) died after developing renal failure as did his son, who tested positive for the novel betacornavirus. The fourth family member was symptomatic, but tested negative. Some media reports suggest he may be retested. Media reports also indicted the son was hospitalized after his father died, suggest a gap in disease onset dates signaling human to human transmission. Media reports also indicate the cluster was in October, but not reported until November 23. The height of Hajj activities were in October, which is also when the second Qatar case was infected, although he did not travel outside of Doha prior to his illness.

Media reports indicated all six confirmed cases and the two probable cases were male, which may have affected testing or may have been related to religious ceremonies which limit interactions between genders. The linkage of the first two confirmed cases to Mecca raises concerns that the novel coronavirus may have spread among Hajj attendees, who subsequently spread the virus to other locations, including Riyadh and Doha.

More information on the Riyadh cluster, include ages and disease onset dates as well as sequences from the associated coronavirus, would be useful.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Bioterrorism perhaps (and this could be from either side . . . )? Those hapless subverted pilgrims especially from any Western (or even ASEAN) country could be (and have been) now carrying a dusting of anything terribly dangerous, some of which will not be ‘activated’ until the warm season etc., nanomites etc.. Every nation with pilgrims had better give all Hajj returnees a good hazmat treatment and quarantine when they return . . .

ARTICLE 20

Chinese tycoon must reapply for approval on Iceland resort – December 02, 2012

REYKJAVIK, Dec 2 – A Chinese tycoon who wants to build a major tourist resort in a remote corner of northeast Iceland must reapply for permission to go ahead with the project, Icelandic media reported yesterday.

Cabinet ministers, led by Industry Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson, said they were unable to make a final decision on Huang Nubo’s application as much information remained unavailable, state radio RUV reported.

His plans have been highly controversial, with some commentators saying they raise questions about regional security because of Iceland’s strategic location in the Arctic where several nations are competing for resources.

Huang has already agreed with municipalities in the area to lease 70 per cent of a 300-square-km farm, where he plans to build a golf course, hotel and outdoor recreation area.

State radio said Huang’s Iceland-registered firm Zhongkun Grimsstadir had in mid-November asked for more time to supply further information, and that it could take a few more months.

In a letter to architect Halldor Johannsson, Huang’s Icelandic representative, the government said Huang should submit a new application which would be reviewed by a government committee.

Huang, who is chairman of Beijing-based Zhongkun Investment Group and was 161st on the Forbes list of the richest Chinese in 2010, plans to reapply as soon as he has gathered the information needed, RUV reported.

Iceland is recovering from its worst-ever financial crisis after the complete collapse of its top banks in 2008, and it is keen to lure foreign investment.

RUV says there would be investment of about 20 billion Iceland krona (RM482 million) in the project and that 400-600 jobs could be created.

The government’s decision was seen by observers as a sign the cabinet wanted to postpone the matter until after planned parliamentary elections in May next year. – Reuters

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

How about giving the nail house another look? Perhaps someone else would like to build on the space where the title is. One would never know who their friends were and China should leave lasting symbols like nail houses in place. China is a disappointment here, or the will of the house owner for love of human rights is not strong enough. Let there be nail houses throughout China!

(The Star) – Hair dressing salon operators are learning the hard way that gender segregation rules in Kelantan apply to non-Muslims as well. They have had to pay many summonses for allowing their female workers to cut the hair of non-Muslim male patrons, which they thought was permissible.

E-Life Hair Salon manager Ong Lee Ting said she had settled 11 summonses since she opened for business in KB Mall in 2010.

Hairy situation: Ong showing one of the 11 summonses she received for allowing her female employees to cut the hair of non-Muslim male patrons.Hairy situation: Ong showing one of the 11 summonses she received for allowing her female employees to cut the hair of non-Muslim male patrons.

The fines were imposed under Section 107(2) of the Local Council Act by-laws which prohibits a woman from cutting the hair of a man and vice versa regardless of religion.

“I have been paying fines of between RM200 and RM350,” said Ong, who was issued the latest summons on Tuesday.

“I find the by-laws confusing … they should not apply to a non-Muslim woman cutting the hair of a non-Muslim man.”

Gender segregation is among the controversial regulations imposed by the PAS state government, which insists that the rule be also observed at supermarket check-outs.

The last time Ong went to the local council office to pay a compound, she was told that the licence for the salon would be revoked because of the many summonses issued to the operator.

However, council secretary Mohd Anis Hussein said: “As long as they (the salon owners) pay the compounds, they will be allowed to operate.”

He added that the salon owners understood the by-laws and the consequences of ignoring them.

Nice Hair Salon manager Alice Ong Lee Ruong was baffled by the rule.

“I would understand it if we were fined for allowing our women workers to cut the hair of Muslim men. But they were attending to non-Muslim men,” she said.

Ong, who had settled 10 summonses so far, wondered for how long she would have to pay fines.

“They are not cheap and we have to consider the high rental, salaries of our workers and other expenses,” she said.

Another salon manager, who declined to be named, said the council by-laws were making life difficult for hair dressers.

(The Star) – The DAP wants the Kelantan government to intervene in the municipal council by-laws prohibiting women from cutting men’s hair in the state.

Chairman Karpal Singh said he was surprised that the state decided to enforce such a ruling on non-Muslims.

“The state government has publicly declared that Islamic laws will not be extended to non-Muslims. PAS has also stated hudud will only be applied to Muslims.

“There’s a lot of concern among the public on what has happened in Kelantan. If hudud is allowed to be applicable to Muslims, there will come (a time that it will) be extended to non-Muslims,” he told a press conference in Air Itam on Saturday.

He was responding to reports that hair salon operators in the PAS-ruled state were being fined for breaching the by-laws which prohibit a woman from cutting the hair of a man and vice versa.

Karpal Singh said the ruling was unconstitutional and could be challenged in court.

“In fact, it should be challenged in court. Those concerned should not pay the fines. It is unlawful.

“I hope that the PAS leadership will intervene and do something about it as soon as possible,” he said adding that Barisan Nasional should not be presented with issues that it can exploit now that the general election is looming.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Anything and everything BUT ending the APARTHEID of BUMIPUTERA eh? Karpal has become the Hairdressers/Barber’s Association President or State Chinese Association Prsident now? This sort of case is even below the Chinese or Indian Chamber of Commerce or State Chinese Association to address (while in the same breath, we must be aware that the Chinese or Indian Chamber of Commerce, State Chinese Association, probably can’t even talk about the APARTHEID oF BUMIPUTERA because they do not have parliamentary immunity – maybe a provision for them to also be granted parliamentary immunity?) , but somehow Karpal can’t talk about the APARTHEID of BUMIPUTERA in spite of parliamentary immunity so this is a great opportunity to look busy while the minoriites remain second class citizens . . . look here ‘Karpal’ if you don’t want to put that Parliamentary Immunity to good use, please give up that decades long seat you’re wasting the Rakyats’s mandate on, to somebody who will use the same to try to end the APARTHEID of BUMIPUTERA and lack of :

Is Karpal a REAL lawyer and aware of the responsibility of an MP to the people? Most Malays and Muslims, probably also the Sultans know in their hearts that apartheid is wrong and that technically in Islam the APARTYHEID of BUMIPUTERA is ILLEGAL. Why does Karpal not HONESTLY and legally challenge the racists and Islamists on these facts? Self serving much? Too many family members, too many contracts colluded on? So does the rakyat need this kind of MP or perhaps has karpal and Sons family bloc spent too much time hoodwinking the Rakyat? An MP’s job goes far beyond this hair issue, like for Human Rights Articles 1 and 18 . . . do something useful or MP-like, or GTFO of Dewan!

Mediocre! And in overall effectiveness, Karpal is but a decades long malingerer on the taxpayer dollar alongside BN’s racism and corrupted worst …

Indian leaders may jump ship if they are not picked as candidates in the coming general election, says a source.

Infighting, backbiting and sabotaging among Indian leaders in PKR could result in the party losing Indian support at the upcoming 13th general election.

The internal rift among these leaders could also play a role in thwarting Pakatan Rakyat’s ambition of taking over the federal government after the polls. The opposition pact is made of PKR, DAP and PAS.

Speaking to FMT, a PKR source admitted that there would be “major party hopping” among Indians in PKR before and after the general election.

Declining to be named, the source said many Indians in the party were waiting for PKR to officially announce its list of Indian candidates to contest under the PKR banner in the coming general election.

“If their names are overlooked as a candidate, then they would jump ship to the Barisan Nasional or quit PKR without joining anyone… they have already made plans to this effect.”

“Unlike PAS and DAP which have a long tradition and faithful members, PKR is a new set-up. Most of its members are from BN component parties. They ran from there to PKR. They ran because they were sidelined in their respective BN component parties. So when the same thing happens here, they would run again,” said the source.

He said the problem among Indian leaders in PKR is “everyone wants a seat to contest”.

“Of course, both Malays and Chinese in PKR also face the same scenario but Indians are the worst,” said the source, who is very close to the party leadership.

He said PKR Indian leaders in their eagerness to win brownie points have also resorted to “attacking” each other in the mainstream media.

Tip of the iceberg

“Some are sending their supporters to Parliament to lobby for seats. For example, I was told that more than 60 candidate profiles have been submitted for the Bukit Melawati state seat in Selangor despite the incumbent M Mutiah declaring interest in defending the seat.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. The factions in the party are heading for a showdown,” the source said.

He claimed that PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim had often met party Indian leaders to get feedback on ways to boost Indian support for Pakatan, but not much was done on the ground to put the plans into action.

“But, this is not enough to woo Indian votes. The Indian leaders in the party are not united. If they are, then they can put up a strong front and lobby for votes of the community. There are several camps within the party and each camp is pressuring Anwar for seats.

Mukhriz (centre bottom), is not a Pakatan MP, just included to show possible phenotype similarities between politicians who benefited from nepotism if any . . .

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Indian candidates are you idiots? Who needs to pressure Anwar? Any independent candidate can run for any seat without pressuring anyone. The whole idea of a political party is to keep all MPs captive to the supreme council. Podah!

ARTICLE 4

‘Anwar is an attention seeker’ – Friday, 23 November 2012 Super Admin

Several BN leaders are appalled at Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim’s attempt to get Australia to observe Malaysia’s general election.

G Vinod, FMT

An MIC leader today chided Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim for seeking attention, especially with his call to Australia to observe the coming general election.

MIC vice-president SK Devamany was referring to Anwar’s move to request the Australian government recently to observe the polls, claiming there were a lot of irregularities in the electoral roll.

However, Australia’s Foreign Minister Bob Carr had rejected the former deputy prime minister’s request, saying they cannot and would not influence how Malaysia runs its election.

“It’s very hard for Australia to do anything about how they’re run, as hard as it would be for Malaysia or another government to have a say in how Australian elections are run.

“We’re not the election authority for Malaysia,” Carr was reported as saying.

Taking Anwar to task, Devamany said that times have changed and the world community is watching each other’s conduct in the information age.

“No point trying to seek attention from other people. They are watching us all the time,” he said.

As for Anwar’s accusation, the deputy minister said that the Barisan Nasional government is transparent and the former could always voice his grouses to the EC.

“He can always use his position as the opposition leader to get things done. But being the attention seeker he is, Anwar will devise new tactics to keep himself relevant.

“No wonder some Pakatan Rakyat leaders are seeking PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang to become prime minister if the opposition bloc wins the federal polls,” said Devamany.

Risk of being colonised again

Echoing Devamany’s sentiments, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) president M Kayveas said that it was dangerous to get foreign powers to be involved in Malaysia’s election.

He also said that with foreign powers’ aid, the party benefiting from them would be indebted to the former and thus, put Malaysia at risk of being “colonised” again.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

To prevent the colonisation factor, NO foreign government based groups people should to be invited keep tabs on the elections, BUT *ELECTION WATCHDOG GROUPS* from foreign and Australian and other non-Western governments should instead. In fact Australian Elections and other Western nations could do with foreign watchdog groups from other countries ESPECIALLY those not particularly friendly to Australia, to prevent fifth columnists manipulating votes to the favour of their own government. Who knows what collusion goes on between governments these days? Foreign governments cannot monitor without compromising the sovereignty of the monitored state.

Instead, unaffiliated to government/unfunded by government civil society WATCHDOG NGOs favouring opposition would be safest. Anwar thus could be in cahooots with the current majority Australian government with the same feigning disinterest. Now if watchdog groups unfriendly to their respective foreign governments were to be called on as monitors, having nothing to gain, these groups would be the most objective choice. This accusation could be avoided simply by Anwar contacting non-mainstream foreign monitors instead. As for attention seeking, 2 terms as MP limits should put paid to that sort of thing once and for all. For expedience, Anwar could be tolerated for now, but the next great purging of politicians will not be those corrupt, opaque and racist (BN era) but those NEPOTISTIC and TERM LIMITLESS (PR era). This would be true progress then to prevent a Mubarak, Gaddafi or Ali Salleh from forming out of term limitless Anwars and Lim Kit Siangs or whatever groups.

(Bernama) – Lawyer Karpal Singh, acting for applicant Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, told the High Court here Friday that the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 had completely prohibited the right to assemble, by way of street protest.

The senior lawyer said the provision under Section 4(1)(c) was not intended to “restrict” but more to “prohibit” the right to assemble.

“Any street protest, actually, was a moving assembly and the Act should not completely prohibit it,” contended Karpal by pointing out on the provision of Section 4(1)(c) of the Act, which he argued, was inconsistent and contravened with the provision of Article 10 (1)(b) of the Federal Constitution.

He said the Act defined a street protest as an assembly that was in movement.

“Even Article 10(1)(b) clearly stated that all citizens have the right to assemble peaceably, without arms,” he noted.

He further submitted that the word, ‘restriction’, should be interpreted as reasonable restriction as stated in Article 10, and the constitution was the supreme law of the country.

“Any law passed after Merdeka Day, which is inconsistent with the constitution, should be declared void,” said Karpal, who urged Justice Kamardin Kashim to allow Anwar’s application with costs.

Kamardin set Nov 30, for respondent (prosecution) to reply to the applicant’s submission Friday.

In a related development, Anwar’s co-counsel, Ram Karpal Singh, said if the court ruled in Anwar’s favour, one of the charges under the Peaceful Assembly Act would be dropped, leaving only two charges still pending at the Sessions Court.

Anwar, 64, together with Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, 48, and Rembau PKR branch chief Badrul Hisham Shaharin (third accused), 34, were charged last May 22, with taking part in street demonstrations which allegedly led to chaos in the city.

The three also faced a second charge of conniving with Tangam Raju, Rajesh Kumar Gejinder and Farhan Ibrahim, by inciting them to remove steel barricades at Jalan Raja here on the same day.

They are the first to be charged under Section 4(2)(c) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, which carries a fine of up to RM10,000, upon conviction.

Last July 2, the trio were charged with conspiring with Tangam, Rajesh, Farhan and five or more supporters of ‘Gabungan Pilihan Raya Bersih dan Adil (Bersih 3.0)’ to defy a magistrate’s court order dated April 26, against holding a rally at Dataran Merdeka from April 28 until May 1, this year.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Excuse me. No citizen needs to ‘assemble’ or riot IF our worthless waste of time nepotistic term limitless MPs (Karpal included) make the effort to end Bumiputra Apartheid or are not corrupt. This assembly thing is USELESS and has no weight legally. The wishes of 26 million Malaysians could be stopped by 222 self serving nepotistic and term limitless MPs simply because not enough Malaysians dare to be independents, there is always 3rd Force but even 3rd Force must respect term limits and preferably allow 1-Man-1-Vote systems in ratifying laws or at least ratifying laws on a district by district level.

An MP legally challenging the inequality and apartheid has more weight than 26 million Malaysians illegally marching. Is Karpal a false flag MP? Any and all Malays and other minorities who believe in neutrality and equality by changing the ILLEGAL and DISCRIMINATIVE Constitutional clauses and laws should give term limitless farces like Karpal here the boot. I’d DROP the right to peacefully assembly in exchange for ending APARTHEID and the below 3 items. Now think, which MP is worth voting for. The one who gives you the ‘right to assemble‘ which is the ‘precursor to riot‘ (there is nothing assembling can do, so frustrated assemblers end up RIOTING) but has no effect on policy, or the MP who grants equality and end of apartheid on your behalf so you do not need to march?

Previously, we reported how Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s oppositions leader has been “framed” with several sex tapes HERE.

While Anwar Ibrahim has denied he is the porn star featured in those sex tapes, it’s very obvious these explicit videos which you can watch below and read more here, are either recorded or simply made up and released with only one thing in mind … Political Assassination.

It’s designed to end the political career of Anwar Ibrahim and to kill the fragile oppositions of Malaysia,which is fighting to boot out the legacy government left behind by Asia’s most corrupt dictator, Mahathir Mohamad, and allegation that can never be proven simply because everything including the judiciary is answerable to only one man in Malaysia ie. the Prime Minister … and yes, it’s that absurd.

The country is currently helm by son of an ex-premier, who himself is laden with all sort of scandalous allegations including corruption and even … MURDER !

I love Malaysia.

Below is the latest “satire” from a pro-government newspaper (Fact: all newspaper in Malaysia are required by law to report only pro-government news. There is no press freedom in Malaysia.)

Go here if you just wanna know more about the sex scandal.

Swimming against the tide

By Joceline Tan @ Star Malaysia

The free Rolls Royce offer to any Anwar Ibrahim look-alike out there has gone unclaimed and US experts have verified the sex video to be authentic. What now for the leader of the Opposition?

NOBODY has claimed the Rolls Royce that is currently stretched out like a sexy lady on the porch of Zamil Ibrahim’s house.

The former PKR politician does not see anyone coming forward now that the country’s most talked-about sex video has been found to be authentic.

Zamil, who is now the Kedah chief of the new political party Kita, said he decided to put his prized wheels on the line because he became sick and tired of hearing claims that the man in the video was merely someone who looks like Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Posh car: No takers for the sleek and beautiful Rolls Royce which is still sitting on the porch of Zamil’s house in Kedah. Inset: Zamil who loves the Rolls Royce.

“I couldn’t take any more of the nonsense that it was an Anwar look-alike,” he said.

Zamil loves the beautiful vintage Rolls the way some Malay men love their second wives. Nevertheless, he was prepared to hand over the Rolls to the person whom Anwar’s supporters claimed had been the Anwar look-alike in the video. It was one of those droll manoeuvres loaded with political irony.

But deep down, Zamil is relieved the car will remain his. It is very similar to the Rolls Royce owned by no less than Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Taib Mahmud except that Zamil’s is in better condition. The engine purrs, the dashboard gleams with polish and the leather seats are in a plush taupe.

Just a fortnight ago, a Chinese friend borrowed the car for his son’s wedding. Zamil loaned the car plus his own driver because he did not want unfamiliar hands at the wheel.
Up against the wall: The sex video episode has reached a pivotal point and Pakatan parties are preparing to move on without Anwar who is seen here officiating at a new PKR branch in Kubang Pasu, Kedah.

There has been no love lost between Zamil and Anwar since the day Zamil claimed he was played out by Anwar over a position in PKR. Unfortunately for Anwar, Zamil does not take broken promises lightly and his quest for vengeance is far from over. A few days ago, Zamil lodged a police report on the police report that Anwar made to deny that he is the man in the video. Zamil’s contention is that Anwar had lodged a false police report.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the sex video scandal exploded back in March. The so-called Datuk Trio comprising Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik, Datuk Eskay Abdullah and Datuk Shuib Ismail has been charged and convicted. Expert opinion from the US is that the video is genuine and the man in it was reported to be “99.99% Anwar.”

End of story? Not quite – the end is still nowhere in sight for this controversial sex video.

“We have passed the climax but this thing has the look of an epic,” said film-maker and Umno blogger Syed Azidi Syed Aziz, who is better known by his blogging name Kickdefella.

Talk is rife of a few more videos in the wings, as well as an explosive photograph. The Datuk Trio is not the sort of people you would want to fool around with, as PKR politician and Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul has learnt.

Johari, who was among the first people the Trio invited to view the video, recently found himself the collateral damage in the controversy. Johari has been going about denying that it is Anwar but last week, the PKR side released a video which featured Johari rubbishing the Trio and the sex video. His account was obviously timed to coincide with the Trio’s court conviction.

The Trio reacted by unleashing footage of Johari watching the sex video during which he appeared to acknowledge that it was Anwar. Johari did not come out very well from it and, if he knows better, this was just a warning from the Trio.

They obviously have more stuff than what has been seen to date given how cocksure they have been about their claims and actions as well as their willingness to swear on the Quran in the mosque.

But whether the Trio comes up with more of the same is not going to matter very much from now.

The sex video episode has reached a pivotal point with the conviction of the Trio and the authentication of the video. For months, Pakatan politicians had challenged the authorities to charge the Trio, and their conviction has taken the fire out of Pakatan’s artillery.

Pakatan politicians have generally ducked the issue of whether the video was authentic or fake. Only one DAP politician had called for the video to be authenticated. He was quietly asked to shut up and no other Pakatan figure has since made such demands.

Their standard line of defence has been that this is “politik lucah” or vulgar politics while PAS took the Islamic and diplomatic way out by insisting that such cases require four witnesses. Very few of them have put their reputation on the line to say that it is not Anwar. Johari is one of them.

But there are still people out there who do not want to accept that the video is authentic despite the tests and analyses by the academic institute in the US.

At the same time, not all of those who agree that the man is Anwar approve of the entrapment. They feel that political victory or defeat should take place via a political contest rather than through sex traps.

But it is increasingly difficult for Pakatan and especially PKR politicians to go on insisting that it is not Anwar.

When asked about this, a PKR official would only say: “Let the public decide whether they believe the 99.99% finding.”

Some people think Anwar is finished. Actually, he is far from finished but fewer people now think he is going to be the next Prime Minister – or even that he is Prime Minister material.

A serious matter

“Non-Muslims regard this as a private matter. But for us Muslims, it is a serious thing. I haven’t seen the video but my friends have seen it and they can decide for themselves,” said a top PAS figure.

Anwar’s problem is the growing element of doubt among the swing group, especially the Malay middle ground. The hardcore supporters on either side will remain where they are; it is the swing group that Pakatan has to be worried about.

Anwar probably feels it when he goes on the ceramah circuit. The crowds are there but he knows they are also checking out his belly, his chest and even his nose as they are listening to him. Fortunately, his stomach is quite flat now that he has lost so much weight and is looking rather gaunt.

The sex video, for one, has been a top topic at the ceramah series organised by the Pasir Salak division. Umno ceramah can be quite boring affairs but this one not only had the crowd’s attention but had them tickled too.

At one ceramah, the speaker said that given the sex-related incidents associated with the opposition leader, “the whole thing is beginning to look like a hobby.”

“Hobbies are okay, but people with this type of hobby, it’s better they don’t try to become the Prime Minister,” said the speaker.

Another speaker said: “Many of us have seen the video, the experts have said it is real, we know it’s him, what else is there to argue. Only the PAS leaders are still arguing as though they know everything, as if they were in the bedroom, under the bed.”

The ceramah series is the brainchild of Pasir Salak Umno politician Dr Faizal Tajuddin who wanted to counter and neutralise the string of ceramah by PAS, which has been parading its latest celebrity recruit, Bob Lokman, the Malay rocker who said he joined PAS because he wanted to go to heaven.

The main target is PAS but the sex video is one of the bullets being used by Dr Faizal’s team.

Many are also waiting to see whether Anwar’s wife and daughter, both politicians, will come forward to defend him again now that the video has been vetted as genuine. The family is said to have been in turmoil since the video surfaced in March but they have no choice but to keep up a united front.

It is quite clear by now that Anwar needs Pakatan more than Pakatan needs him. He was a superhero in the aftermath of March 2008 but Pakatan is now shouldering him through his personal problems.

Anwar’s nemesis, Kita president Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, put it quite bluntly when he said the opposition has been “utterly compromised” by Anwar and that the latter is “destroying the credibility of the opposition.”

Zaid was equally critical of the authority’s handling of the sex video, describing it as “foolish and clumsy”, all of which added up to what he described as “the tragedy of Malaysian politics.”

Pakatan leaders know it as well. Privately, they are already talking of a revived role for Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah in the near future. Dr Wan Azizah has been playing the role of dutiful wife rather than PKR president but Pakatan leaders are ready to accept her if Anwar is indisposed.

“Kak Wan will still lead. We can work with her even though she is not up to mark,” said the same PAS figure.

PKR deputy president Azmin Ali is experienced and capable but the Pakatan leaders are still uncomfortable with him. Rising star Nurul Izzah is ambitious but still very green and her haste to be noticed has seen her mired in embarrassing boo-boos such as claiming that the Malaysian submarine could not dive whereas it has dived to its maximum depth off the coast of Sabah with no less than the King onboard.

Recently, Anwar claimed he had the clout to call off the Bersih rally if he wanted to, implying he was still in charge. The rally’s figurehead leader Datuk S. Ambiga immediately shot back that the rally is on.

It was a slap in the face for Anwar. The Bersih rally is basically a PAS show and it is the clearest sign that Anwar’s centrestage placing in Pakatan politics has been hijacked by PAS.

Moreover, the new PAS battle cry is “PAS ganti Umno”, the implication being that PAS has the ability to replace Umno and that can only mean one thing – PAS is positioning itself to dominate in the general election and claim the Prime Ministership.

Pakatan parties are preparing to move on without Anwar. His role as an intermediary between PAS and DAP is quite redundant now that the Erdogans are in charge in PAS. The Erdogans speak the same political language as DAP leaders and they can sit at the same table with DAP.

There is even talk that if Anwar cannot defend Permatang Pauh in the next general election, Nurul Izzah will go there since the election law disqualifies Dr Wan Azizah from contesting a seat which she resigned from.

The days when Anwar could walk on water are over. He is swimming against the current.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

This is an old article, but lookalikes can be easily created given the amount of funds BN has. They could get the nearest looking lookalike ‘Anwar’ add abit of plastic surgery or anyone in the opposition and make them do all kinds of porn for release in the internet EVERY week or make the fakes ‘say things’ that are politically destructive which will be presented as insider records etc.. Chua Soi Lek could have been smart enough to dodge the bullet but chose to be honest, bravo, but a person who would be honest about invasion of privacy vids, yet not want to challenge apartheid is an oxymoron of sorts. As for Pakatan, the problem still stands and very clearly that Pakatan is a CLOSED party. I have at least tried quite indirectly to sound Pakatan out, and noted the extreme fear and prevention of ‘outside’ forces taking over. Then after Pakatan’s sacrifice of Teo Beng Hock, perhaps was best that some of us were not invited to join anyway. After doing the scrimmage work, the least that some politicians could have done was not betray their would-be supporters to the psychiatric establishment . . .

2 sides of the same Rakyat oppressive coin?

We’d be better off setting up a 3rd Force party to remove the cynical apartheid tolerating hudud accepting guys with similar looking wives (Betty and Rosmah might as well be the same person), drop 50% of DAP’s nepotists I say . . . those undemocratic creeps are very harmful to the country, as is any who are term limitless and nepotistic and refuse to make clear on :

;while touting Hudud or an Islamist party PAS par excellence Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. These Islamists are all the same IMHO, when courting the voters, they say nice things but after gaining power, they turn all Islamist and start persecuting everyone. MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP however have entirely failed to seperate from BN to lead 3rd force which I list below :

Proposed 3rd Force Party

End the APARTHEID and drop the racists. or get the racists to drop apartheid if BN wants GE13. Other than that, the mandate which is unused as of now would likely become Pakatan’s, a much worse option in many ways.

ARTICLE 7

Pakatan must do more for Penang Malays – Saturday, 24 November 2012 Super Admin

The Malays in Penang want a Malay Deputy Chief Minister to look after their interests

To this, the congress’ president Rahmad Isahak said it was becoming clear that both PKR and PAS have failed to maintain Pakatan Rakyat’s hold on the Malays.

Hawkeye, FMT

The Penang Malay Congress has called on DAP to consider appointing a Malay to become the next Deputy Chief Minister (DCM) I if the present leader, PKR’s Mansor Othman, relinquishes the post in favour of contesting a parliament seat.

The rumour mill is working overtime in Penang now since PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim announced last week that Mansor, a party vice-president, will contest the Nibong Tebal parliament seat.

The seat is presently held by Tan Tee Beng who had won the seat under the PKR banner in 2008 but has since become an Independent.

Anwar declined to comment on whether Mansor will be allowed to defend his present Penanti state seat on the mainland.

To this, the congress’ president Rahmad Isahak said it was becoming clear that both PKR and PAS have failed to maintain Pakatan Rakyat’s hold on the Malays.

Moving Mansor out of Penang, stengthens the congress’ belief that Pakatan is concerned about the Malay ground here and confirms that the Malay electorate is disappointed with them, Rahmad said.

Mansor has been underfire for the last three years for failing to champion Malay issues well, and he is often seen as being subservient to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

To arrest an alleged decline in Malay support, Rahmad said Pakatan needs to revamp its present leadeship allocation.

A Malay DAP candidate, who wins in the next election, should instead be made the DCM I as this will demonstrate to the people that the party is committed to the Malays, Rahmad said.

Talk is that Penang DAP will consider fielding at least two Malay candidates here to challenge the perception among the Malay community that it is a Chinese party.

DAP’s failure to field any Malays may also give rise to a number of independent candidates – sponsored by Malay civil groups where 23 organisations have sprouted up in Penang since 2008.

Rahmad said the Malays in Penang have become restless due to the inability of the DAP-led state government to effectively address their socio-economic issues.

The community’s grouses are over the lack of affordable housing, erosion of their heritage and culture values, made worse by the demolition of traditional villages on the island and the lack of quality jobs despite a record number of fresh investments.

“If you ask a critically minded Malay if they support Pakatan, they remain speechless. It is not because Pakatan failed them, it is because the issues of the community has gone unnoticed by the inexperienced government for the past four years.”

The Malay dilemma

The Malays are now venting their anger on PKR and PAS for failure to convince DAP over the critical need to look at the community’s issues.

Even during Barisan’s era, the Malay community here has been stirring up issues and expressing their anger, Rahmad said in an interview.

The Malays are in a dilemma here because if they support Pakatan, there is a preception out there that their issues will not be effectively resolved unless a strong-willed Malay leader is appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister I, Rahmad said.

On the other hand, it is pointless to support Umno as the party is part of the Barisan Nasional coalition, which is finding it increasingly difficult to regain acceptance in Penang, he said.

;so that the minorities will not care what race the CM is. Frankly Penang has had a minority CM for too long, on the other hand ALL OTHER Sultanate led STATES have had Malay MBs for too long as well. The door swings both ways . . .

ARTICLE 8

Najib: Change can happen with the same government – by Ida Lim – November 24, 2012

Najib addresses the crowd at the Barisan 1 Malaysia gathering at the Putra World Trade Centre who respond by raising one finger. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — A change in government is not necessary for changes in the country, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today.

The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) is ready to change, said Najib, who is also chairman of the 13-member coalition.

“… BN is not a party that is inflexible. We are ready to change.

“Change can happen in our country and we have proven that not necessarily we change government, but we can bring big change with the same government,” Najib said at the Barisan 1 Malaysia gathering at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) here.

He also hinted that the government may give more cash handouts to the people if the country is well-managed.

He was speaking about the government’s financial aid to the working class and other sections of society, such as giving out tyres to taxi drivers and cash handouts to singles under the Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M) 2.0 scheme, before hinting that more handouts were possible.

“Boleh lagi. We (can) give more in the future with the condition that our country is managed well.

“And all these we are able to do because in the past four years, we have proven that this is not an empty promise…” Najib said.

;no change can be expected. BN has the mandate to grant the above now. Why has BN not used that mandate to grant the above? This proves there will be no change. The above 3 items cost nothing to implement.

NOV 19 — Unless appropriate formal and equitable engagement mechanisms are put in place, civil society will be not be in a position to effectively advocate for and ensure the protection of human rights in the region. This is the lesson to be gleaned from the adoption of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) yesterday (November 18) during the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The inability of civil society organisations (CSOs) to meaningfully engage with members of ASEAN over the establishment of institutional and normative human rights frameworks to date explains the limited effectiveness of their advocacy in securing a real protection mechanism for the people of ASEAN.

Much of the discussion emerging from yesterday’s release of AHRD has focused on the criticism by CSOs over the lack of adherence to international human rights standards and the rejoinder by ASEAN governmental representative that the tone of the current AHRD is what is politically feasible now within the regional grouping. But the root problem remains the lack of access of CSOs to the inter-governmental process that has crafted institutional mechanisms and the AHRD.

Over the last two years, CSOs seeking to advance the protection of human rights in the nascent ASEAN human rights regime have been confronted with a regional association and member governments that are still deeply wedded to the principle of non-interference and the primacy of national laws.

Beginning with the ASEAN Charter in 2008, which promised the establishment of a human rights body, CSOs have been pressuring member governments to adopt a mechanism that would speak to international standards and include a protection mechanism. At each step towards formalising a regional mechanism, for example in 2009 in the run up to the drafting of the Terms of Reference for the AICHR and now in 2012 in the drafting of AHRD, CSOs have tried their level best to engage with ASEAN but in vain.

On the adoption of the ADHR in Phnom Penh on November 18, CSO criticisms of the declaration continued unabated. While Singapore’s Representative to the AICHR, Chang Heng Chee, hailed the advent of the “peer-review” mechanism and the ADHR as “the best that could be done” in the social and political context, the CSO exclusion from the process of crafting a human rights regime remains a blatant fact.

Some 60 CSOs wrote to ASEAN leaders requesting the postponement of the signing given serious flaws in the document. Echoing strongly their comments, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, also called for the same and has stated: “I am surprised and disappointed that the draft declaration has not been made public and that civil society has not been consulted in the drafting of the document.”

Poignant criticisms have pointed to AHRD failings to meet existing international standards and the risks of creating a sub-standard level of rights protection in the region.

Pillay has cited as an example the provision on the right to life which, she said, should not be contingent on domestic laws that can be used to justify state-sponsored violence. Further, ASEAN governments want the enjoyment of rights to be balanced with the “performance of duties” and be subject to “national and regional contexts”.

Rights in the region therefore stand to be restricted on a wide range of grounds, including “national security” and “public morality”. The declaration is further criticised for having too many loopholes that may permit states to bypass international standards. Even Surin Pitsuwan, speaking at the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh, admitted: “This document can be improved upon.”

On such substantive matters critical to the well-being of all ASEAN citizens, CSOs have been confronted with ASEAN member-states’ strategy of selective and limited engagement with CSOs to date over the establishment of a human rights regime in the region. The entire project of crafting a human rights regime is pursued purely as an inter-governmental activity.

With no institutionalised mechanism for consultation, CSO engagement has only been accommodated on a piece-meal basis and only because of the tireless advocacy, persistence and pressure by regional CSOs. This state of affairs has neutralised CSOs’ ability to advocate successfully for the protection of human rights in the region.

Such a purely inter-governmental approach is entirely out of step with how inter-governmental organisations such as the UN, the EU and the OAS conduct their own inter-governmental activities. In those mechanisms civil society is mainstreamed into the human rights processes.

In addition to concern over core substantive dilemmas — the lack of real protection of human rights and the failure to meet international standards — the real subtext is the fact that civil society has not been mainstreamed as it should be. Lack of such mainstreaming undermines ASEAN’s own call for a more people-centred community.

Civil society organisations, which have historically played a vital role in advancing the protection of human rights globally, and the media (traditional and new), must continue and intensify their push for more transparency in the ASEAN human rights regime, for the respect of international commitments already binding upon ASEAN states, for the respect for universal standards under the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and for real protection of fundamental rights.

When it comes to the development of human rights in the region, the lack of genuine consultation with CSOs by ASEAN’s member governments reflects the marginalisation of one of the important sectors within the member states. A formal consultation mechanism is vital to the protection of human rights in the region and to the creation of a more people-centred ASEAN.

* Drs James Gomez (Thammasat University) and Robin Ramcharan (Queen’s University Center for International Relations) are authors of the paper “The Protection of Human Rights in Southeast Asia: Improving the Effectiveness of Civil Society Advocacy”.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

At very least allow ALL activites for registered persons in restricted zones for a start.

From the Biblical book of Proverbs (15.33), it says: “The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honour.”

The Qur’an (7:94) reads as follows: “Whenever We sent a Prophet to a society, We took up its people in suffering and adversity, in order that they might learn humility.”

One seeking honour must have an attitude of humility and recognising his responsibility to others must be his priority. One such personality among the ordinary citizens is the incumbent PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang.

In his speech at the recent 58th Muktamar PAS in Kelantan, he said, “To become the prime minister is not my aim in politics. I would rather be a slave to the people.”

Be that as it may, the consensus among Pakatan allies is that Anwar Ibrahim will be made the prime minister in the event of the coalition taking over Putrajaya in the 13th general election. Of course, this is not going to make UMNO’s supreme mentor, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, happy.

And Anwar – with his credentials, experience and international exposure – is considered by majority Malaysians to be the most qualified man to head the government.

Becoming a leader is a huge responsibility

As a devout Muslim, Hadi is aware that becoming a leader is a huge responsibility (amanah). As such, he said that “let a prime minister be a person from among those entrusted by the rakyat, who could carry out his duty in good conscience and is blessed by God”.

This unmistakeably testifies that PAS advocates the principle of democracy in politics and the tussle to become the prime minister if Pakatan takes over Putrajaya in the next election does not exist at all.

In fact, according to political observers, there is no issue of any political scrimmage within the Pakatan coalition on the issue of who shall become the prime minister. The understanding on this issue has been generally accepted by all the three parties in Pakatan – PAS, PKR and DAP.

PAS and Pakatan Rakyat are not facing a dearth of leaders. Within PAS there are many among them who have a good religious background, are professional and also well-versed with the economy that could be entrusted to lead the nation.

Notably among them are scientist-cum-economist Dzulkefly Ahmad the Member of Parliament for Kuala Selangor, former deputy governor of Bank Negara, economist and consultant Rosli Yaakop and former Menteri Besar of Perak Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, a Member of Parliament and engineer by profession.

Unpretentiousness is the ethos found among PAS leaders. Political pundits have this to say: Even if a leader from PAS is appointed as prime minister this will not be a cause to worry among the non-Muslims. At present two states in the country have Menteri Besar from PAS – Kelantan and Kedah.

They have performed relatively well in the economic governance of the states even though they come from a religious background.

Nizar was chosen

But the best narration that could allay the fears of non-Muslims over PAS is that of what ensued in Perak in 2008. On 8 March 2008, the Pakatan Rakyat coalition in Perak won 31 seats of the 59 seat Perak State Assembly, which enabled it to form the state government with a simple majority.

The DAP commanded the most seats out of the 31 seats held by Pakatan Rakyat and were initially the claimants to the post of Menteri Besar. However, the Perak State Constitution stipulates that the menteri besar must be of Malay descent, and a non-Malay could only be appointed by a royal waiver by the Perak Palace.

To resolve this, all three parties sent their nominations for the menteri besar post to the Regent of Perak, Raja Nazrin Shah. Reluctant Nizar was chosen over Ngeh Koo Ham of the DAP and Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi of PKR on 12 March 2008 and he sworn in on 17 March 2008 at Istana Iskandariah, Kuala Kangsar.

Nizar from PAS ended up working harmoniously with all the coalition members and proved himself to become a popular menteri besar although his stint as the chief of Perak government was short-lived (17 March 2008 – 12 May 2009). This was after a controversial takeover of the State by Barisan in 2009 when three Pakatan assemblymen left the coalition to become Barisan-friendly.

On 11 May 2009, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that the Sultan could not constitutionally remove Nizar from office, and that Nizar had always been the rightful menteri besar. However, Nizar at the end of the day lost the legal proceedings when, in February 2010, the Federal Court ruled Zambry Abdul Kadir from Barisan to be the lawful menteri besar.

In the same year Nizar from PAS won the Bukit Gantang parliamentary by-election with a thumping victory over the Barisan candidate (Ismail Safian) that made him a member of parliament. He clinched the support of Malays and majority non-Malays in the by-election.

Nizar proved himself as a capable and well-liked menteri besar by all the races in Perak though he represented PAS – an Islamic party. He proved himself that he could handle the state with humility, integrity and fairness.

Thus, a PAS man becoming a leader of a state or nation should not become an issue in multi-racial and democratic Malaysia.

Chua Soi Lek as prime minister

Mahathir, in a media report, was cynical when he proposed that Karpal Singh – DAP Chief, a prominent lawyer and Member of Parliament – be chosen as the prime minister in the case Pakatan wins the next general election. This must be akin to suggesting Chua Soi Lek, the MCA President to become the prime minister within the Barisan rank.

By virtue of Mahathir’s statement, if Karpal can become the prime minister of Malaysia there is no wrong then for Chua to be elevated as prime minister in Barisan. Perhaps, UMNO under their supreme guru, Mahathir, can ponder over this matter.

Mahathir insinuated that Pakatan is fractious when it comes to the appointment of a prime minister. Political observers opine that the man Mahathir fears most in life is Anwar. Anwar was ousted from the party in 1998 when Mahathir sensed that he would be sent to the political bin if he did not act fast enough on his ambitious nemesis.

Of course, Mahathir will be the most despondent man on earth if Anwar becomes the next prime minister of the country.

The country is now blessed with a two-party system and this bodes well for the people. There may be some minor differences in Pakatan as opposed to major squabbles in UMNO and Barisan.

UMNO has virtually decimated MCA, MIC and Gerakan by its Malay-centric approach to politics and is now all alone against the mounting crusade from Pakatan against Barisan.

The split in UMNO

Pakatan associates have not split to the extent of forming PKR Baru, DAP Baru or PAS Baru just to chase for the prime minister’s post.

In 1987, for the first time in twelve years, the incumbent President, Mahathir, was challenged by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah for the Presidency of UMNO. There was a forceful campaign to win the support of the approximately 1,500 delegates from party branches all over the country, who came to elect the party officers.

Some were even accused of money politics during the intense campaigns to decide who would be the president of UMNO and subsequently the prime minister of the country.

The official results declared Mahathir the winner, with 761 votes to Razaleigh’s 718. There was a major split in UMNO after that episode all because of “a prime minister’s post”. The vanquished was not happy and brought the matter to the Court.

UMNO was later declared as an illegal entity by the Court for having some “phantom” branches.

Soon after, UMNO Baru was born – laboriously “delivered” by Mahathir – and Razaleigh left UMNO to form Semangat46. This split in UMNO has remained until today. And Razaleigh until now has not given up his hope to become the prime minister.

As Hadi said, “Becoming a leader is not because one desires to become one. It must be with the blessings of God and with the consent and support of the majority”.

Buzz is now steeping

There are many more senior UMNO proponents tussling, including the Perkasa Chief who is ambitious, to become or be made the prime minister. The incumbent Deputy UMNO President, Muhyiddin Yassin, has his own supporters who would want him to challenge Najib Abdul Razak – the present yet to be endorsed UMNO president – to become the prime minister and this buzz is now steeping in the party.

And Mahathir will not leave this world a happy man until he could be assured that his son Mukhriz is in line to the throne as well. Ambitious Khairy Jamaluddin – UMNO Youth Chief who holds no ministerial post and is more noted for his penchant for football than the welfare of UMNO – who is not in the good book of Mahathir and Najib is also very keen to become prime minister.

It was reported that Khairy did at one time boast that he wanted to become the prime minister before the age 40. His hope however is dashed under the present UMNO set-up.

Another point that should be highlighted here is that money politics has become the malady affecting UMNO party members who have been jostling up the political ladder since 1981. This mucky, corrupt and irreligious norm is not found in PAS, PKR or DAP.

More perceptible within UMNO

Pro-UMNO media is playing up the issue as though Pakatan is split over the choice of a prime minister in the event of Pakatan winning the next general election but this is a non-issue to the non-Malays as well as the Malays.

UMNO and its supreme but unpopular advice-giver have failed to unnerve those who might be concerned about Pas leading a new federal government.

In a nutshell, all the hankering and throbbing to become prime minister is more perceptible within UMNO than any of the Opposition party.

Of course Hadi in a humble way “welcomed” the sincere proposal by the Ulama Wing Chief – a polite gesture on Hadi’s part to please the enthusiastic participants – that he be chosen to become the prime minister.

But wisdom prevailed in him, as he was quick to qualify that his aim in politics was not to become a prime minister. He even warned the participants of the risks of being desperately ambitious in politics.

He then aptly said, “Leadership is a huge trust and a big responsibility. Whoever becomes the prime minister is secondary. The good values of Islam should be upheld. A leader must be trustworthy, not corrupt, of high integrity and who could bring social justice to all Malaysians. And if this is achieved it is enough for me in this world.”

The rakyat have not heard this kind of humble statement springing from any UMNO leader since 1981.

Malaysia Chronicle

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

. . . Becoming a leader is a huge responsibility . . .

Bullsh1t! All an MP needs to do is amend laws en masse with other MPs, and GTFO of Dewan after the 2nd term so that some other Malaysian will have a chance to do some policy work. All the MPs of today do are argue, never forward useful bills and keep apartheid in place by not challenging what is Illegal in the Human Rights Charter and Islam and virtually every faith on the planet. Responbsibility is making CHANGE by ratifying good policy and forwarding amendments to policy. Not keep the APARTHEID of BUMIPUTERA in place (BN), threaten to destroy private property (Gambier Threat – DAP), destroy livilihood of the streetside petty traders (DAP), ask for 750K funerals (DAP), ask for raises for MP and Assemblyman salaries (DAP), or try to impose Hudud on Malaysians (PAS), especially non-Muslim Malaysians, or pass off 8% quorum party elections as valid (PKR) or 0.002% (300 out of 1.5 million) for EXCO posts.

The above makes today’s hateful term limitless and extremely nepotistic MPs, loudmouths without responsibility. ALL an MP needs to do is change a few things by putting a signature down which any street sweeper can happily do. So far nothing useful from either side, lots of mega contracts for 1% cronies but nothing concrete for the 99%.

. . . He then aptly said, “Leadership is a huge trust and a big responsibility. Whoever becomes the prime minister is secondary. The good values of Islam should be upheld. A leader must be trustworthy, not corrupt, of high integrity and who could bring social justice to all Malaysians. And if this is achieved it is enough for me in this world.” . . .

APTLY? Malaysian Chronicle converted to Islam lately? ‘The good values of Islam should be upheld.’ is the vaguest most threatening thing being said as much as President Morsi of Egypt’s ‘Absolutist Decree’ just recently. There are OTHER good values – of other fiaths, of democracy of HUMAN RIGHTS that too many religions attack constantly. WHAT THE HELL is apt about a potential crypto-Islamist statement like that given the neglect of 40% of the population’s seculars or non-Hudu Malays up to 80-95% of Malaysia’s population altogether?

Hadi has NOT addressed the seculars since ‘accepting the PMship’ a week or so ago – Morsi Style! please stop emboldening with this sort of collusion or laziness. Apt? Hadi has forgotten the 40% of non-Muslims and non-Malays as well as possibly 70% of the non-pro-Hudud Malays and Muslims. Malaysia Chronicle sure this can be called ‘APT’? Frankly Malaysian MPs are overpaid, even when a 900 minimum wage cannot be implemented, what business have MPs have to take 23K per month of taxpayer monies? MPs salaries are paid by the Rakyat, did any Rakyat say they deserve 23K? On a 1-Man-1-Vote vote, probably MPs will have their salaries LOWERED to no more than 10 times minimum annual wage which would likely be RM$9000, even as minimum wage of $900 already gets ALL MP’s dragging their feet . . . the Pakatan MPs are term limitless and nepotistic, do not care for the Rakyat, even as BN MPs continue apartheid . . . vote 3rd Force!

Proposed 3rd Force Party

ARTICLE 11

RPK: Do You Think I Give A Crap? – by RAJA PETRA KAMARUDIN – Monday, 05 November 2012 16:25

“More I read your articles, more I have an inclination that you really are on a BN payroll.” – @bengali kunday.

That was what a reader going by the nickname of ‘@bengali kunday’ said. Well, allow me to reply to that.

First of all, even if I am on the payroll of Barisan Nasional, so what? There are people like those in Malaysiakini, Malaysia Chronicle, and so on, who are on Pakatan Rakyat’s payroll. In fact, sites like Harakah and many others actually belong to and are financed by Pakatan Rakyat or parties within Pakatan Rakyat. And they do not hide that fact or are apologetic or ashamed about serving the interest of a political party, notwithstanding the fact that it is an opposition party.

Are you implying that it is okay to be on Pakatan Rakyat’s payroll but not okay to be on Barisan Nasional’s payroll? Are you also implying that democracy and freedom of choice and freedom of association means you must be on Pakatan Rakyat’s payroll but not on Barisan Nasional’s payroll?

What type of democracy is this when you are restricted to serving one party’s interest but not the other? What type of democracy is this when you have no freedom of choice or freedom of association and are obligated to serve one party’s interest but not the other?

You take the moral high ground whenever you feel that someone is serving Barisan Nasional’s interest but you do not demonstrate that same moral outrage if someone is on Pakatan Rakyat’s payroll. So-called ‘independent’ human rights organisations such as Suaram openly work for Pakatan Rakyat but that is not repulsive to you. Only if they serve Barisan Nasional’s interest is it repulsive.

Secondly, when I write articles very damaging to Barisan Nasional and Umno – such as my two recent articles this week in The Corridors of Power regarding Umno Sabah – you do not consider that as being on Pakatan Rakyat’s payroll. However, if I write just one article that is slightly uncomplimentary to Pakatan Rakyat (in fact, the article that I wrote in which you posted that comment is not even about Pakatan Rakyat or uncomplimentary to Pakatan Rakyat) you consider that as being on Barisan Nasional’s payroll.

To you Pakatan Rakyat supporters, the decent thing to do is to serve Pakatan Rakyat’s interest. Serving any other interest is an indecent thing to do. You decide the moral boundaries and limits of decency and anyone who does not pass your interpretation and yardstick of morality and decency is vilified. Who appointed you the guardian and trustee of morality and decency?

How different are you from the religionists who decide what is moral and what is decent and impose their standards of morality and decency on others? Since Muslims represent the majority population in Malaysia can Muslims then, going by the doctrine of democracy where majority rules, impose their Islamic interpretation of morality and decency on the minority?

Since the majority dictates the ground rules then surely what is compatible to Islam should prevail and anything repulsive to Islam should be barred. In that case the Islamic Sharia law, Hudud included, should be the law of the land. Muslims who are the majority in Malaysia should decide what is moral and what is decent and Islam must be the code of conduct that all Malaysians should live by.

Religionists such as Muslims, even if they are the majority in Malaysia, should not impose their will on Malaysians, even on fellow Muslims, let alone on the non-Muslims. So why should you impose your will on others? The believers of Islam should not vilify those who are not of the Muslim faith. Why should the believers of Pakatan Rakyat vilify those who are not of the opposition faith?

When misguided Muslims adopt the ‘either you are with us or you are against us’ religious doctrine, you find that revolting, indecent and immoral. But you can adopt the ‘either you are with us or you are against us’ political doctrine and it is not revolting, indecent and immoral.

What kind of hypocritical double standard is this? You resent it when others impose their will on you and when they decide what is tolerable, moral and decent. But you can impose your will on others and decide what is tolerable, moral and decent. Can you see the hypocrisy that is so thick you can cut it with a knife?

Do you think I care a sh** about Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat? Do you think I care a sh** whether Barisan Nasional retains power or Pakatan Rakyat gains power? Do you think my life is only about the general elections and about who gets to march into Putrajaya? That is a very narrow way to look at life.

Do you honestly think that my mission in life is to make sure that Barisan Nasional does not get kicked out? Do you honestly think that my mission in life is to ensure that Pakatan Rakyat gets to form the next federal government? You have a very narrow mission in life. Do not imagine that my mission in life is as narrow as yours.

Politicians are politicians, never mind from which side of the political divide. And the narrow objective of all politicians is merely to get into power. What makes you think that that is also my very narrow objective? If you think that then you have not been reading properly what I have been writing over these last 35 years.

You Pakatan Rakyat supporters are still too immature. And that is why Pakatan Rakyat is not ready to run the country. Pakatan Rakyat supporters first need to gain some maturity before Pakatan Rakyat can be allowed to form the federal government. You need to suffer another term under Barisan Nasional. This suffering might then wake you up and only when you wake up can we talk about a change of government.

Yes, do keep whacking me. Continue to vilify me. And when you do I will do everything within my power to make sure that the coming general election is going to result in a huge shock and disappointment for you.

Never give a flower to a monkey, the Malays would say. That is like throwing pearls to swine, the English say. And that is how I look at some of you Pakatan Rakyat supporters, monkeys and swine that are not ready to be entrusted with power.

So you want to fight. So let’s fight. I have nothing to lose because I don’t care a sh** which side is going to win the coming general election. That is what you want. That is not what I want. Just because that is what you want you have this mistaken notion that that is what I also want.

What stupid people you are. If I support Pakatan Rakyat then I am God. If I do not support Pakatan Rakyat then I am a Barisan Nasional stooge. Well, let me break it to you gently. I am neither God not a Barisan Nasional stooge. I am an independent-spirited individual who does not care a sh** about losers like you.

It is true that there are things that we Malaysians should be proud of, and be thankful for. It is equally true that many things are not well in our country. They have not been well for some time now.

Matters of safety and security, price hikes, education, issues of equal opportunities and equal treatment, constriction of various forms of freedom, marginalization of several segments of society, the failing justice system, corruption in the public sector, the rising denial syndromes, the arrogance of wrongdoers nourished by their repeated ability to get off scot-free, and the numbness of the public reaction towards misdeeds and the lack of accountability, just to describe a few.

Many of the ills that we complain about in our society are the symptoms of the underlying causes. Some of the major root causes are:

(a) epidemic corruption in a system that does little to prohibit or redress it,

(b) lack of a system of transparency and accountability,

(c) the suppression of various freedoms so as to turn a silent majority into a silenced majority,

(d) a Government that is more interested in commanding than serving,

(e) a Parliament whose overwhelming majority cares more about power-consolidation than nation-building, and

(f) a weak “last bastion” in the form of a failing justice system.

Breaking point

Can things be allowed to go on this way? Can we afford to do so?

Should our future generations suffer the consequences of our permissiveness?

It is quite obvious that we need a better Government and a better Parliament.

But that will not happen if we, the citizens of Malaysia , do little more than blaming the Government and criticizing our Members of Parliament. It is we who put our MPs in the Parliament. It is we who must take the ultimate responsibility.The buck stops at each and every one of us.

My earnest appeal to everyone is therefore as follows:

– discuss the need for a better Parliament and a better Government, with your family members, colleagues, friends and persons close to you;

– make it a point to go and vote in the next election, and to vote for change and for betterment; discard the notion or excuse that your single vote will not matter;

– discard the notion or excuse that politics is dirty and all politicians are the same, and therefore that there is no point in voting;

– influence and encourage as many of your family members, colleagues, friends and persons close to you as possible, to come out and vote for change and for betterment in the coming election.

Meaningless to gripe if you don’t VOTE

It is meaningless for us to complain about our Parliamentarians and the Government, if we do not first discharge a simple but sacrosanct duty of choice.

Let us all take the time to look into the beautiful but expectant eyes of our children, and of the children of many others for whom we care.

The future of our nation is meant for them. But millions of them cannot vote. They put their fate in our hands. They rely on us not just for their present living and support. They rely on us, too, to vote for a better future for them.

And after discharging our duty to vote, we must continue to be vigilant, and ensure that our elected representatives account for their actions, and make good their promises.

I humbly suggest to you that change and betterment are not empty dreams, if all of us play our respective parts. I invite you, and I urge you, to answer my appeal as set out above.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Yeo Yang Poh

(former Bar Council President)

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

So says the ‘great legal mind’ who propped up Mahathir’s racist corrupt government and sat silently while in power as Bar President while APARTHEID of BUMIPUTRA and OPs Lallang went on. This legal beagle (no eagle even though was Bar Council President) Yeo Yang Poh entirely failed his watch, did not challenge Malaysia’s failed state throughout the 1970s to 1990s.

The legal fraternity worldwide should blackball this failure Yeo and also the Bar Council of today as well for not challenging apartheid. And now Yeo thinks that writing an ‘open letter’ will exhonerate such neglect and tacit approval of such Malaysian racism, corruption, illegal actions and general malaise? Liar and traitor to all Malaysian, traitor to minorities, traitor to ETHICS and the integrity of the legal system! Shame on Yeo Yang Poh for never raising the possibility of ending the APARTHEID OF BUMIPUTRA!

Malaysia Chronicle must be getting chronic to allow such people to post articles on their media article. Cynical media portal featuring cynical letters from supposed learned writers who sellout the 99% of citizens!

ARTICLE 13

DON’T BE SO ‘ULU’ UMNO: Stop the May 13 threats, have the GUTS to compete on level ground! – by Lim Kit Siang – Friday, 30 November 2012 15:44

The irresponsible threats raised by UMNO leaders at the 66th UMNO General Assembly of “May 13” and chaos if UMNO loses the 13th General Election, falsely claiming that Malays will lose political power and will be rendered “destitute in our own land”, is the best proof of the failure and hypocrisy of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia policy.

If the 1Malaysia Policy proclaimed by Najib after he became Prime Minister in in April 2009 is more than election gimmicks for votes in the 13GE, its philosophy “to create a Malaysian nation where every Malaysian will regard himself or herself as Malaysian first and race, religion, geographical region or socio-economic status second” should have been the guiding spirit of speeches of UMNO/BN leaders and their party conferences.

But this is clearly not the case despite the onset of the 43rd month of Najib’s premiership, as illustrated by the 66th Umno General Assembly.

In the first place, an Umno/BN leader fully imbued by the 1Malaysia spirit of “Malaysian first and race, religion, geography or socio-economic status second” would never entertain any notion let alone utter any threat of May 13 or chaos regardless of the outcome of the forthcoming 13th general election, as anyone who could toy with any May 13 threat or warning of chaos because of the free democratic choice of Malaysians in the 13th general election has not only failed to imbibe the spirit of 1Malaysia, but is acting in a most disloyal and unpatriotic manner utterly heedless of the higher interests of the nation and the best future for the country.

Felled by own falsehoods

Such disloyal and unpatriotic notions is all the more reprehensible as they are built on despicable lies and falsehoods, that the defeat of UMNO in the 13th GE will result in the loss of political power of the Malays resulting in the Malays, to quote one speech: “..if we go down in this struggle, we do not have anything left. Pakatan will be brought down to their knees, and eventually become destitute in our own land”.

That fate may befall UMNO leaders – and that is if UMNO is incapable of reform even after being ousted from Putrajaya – but definitely it will not be the fate of the Malays.

This is because replacing UMNO/BN in Putrajaya will be the Pakatan Rakyat coalition comprising PKR, PAS and DAP – comprising Malaysians from all races, religions and regions representing the best interests of all.

Do MCA and the other BN component parties agree that if UMNO/BN loses in the 13GE, the Malays will lose political power?

MCA leaders are in fact saying the very opposite – telling the Chinese that if Pakatan Rakyat defeat UMNO/BN in the next general elections, the Chinese will lose even more political, economic, educational, socio-economic and citizenship rights!

Only the corrupt will lose power

Let UMNO and MCA leaders decide on one common message – whether it is the Malays or Chinese who will lose political power if UMNO/BN is replaced by Pakatan Rakyat in the 13GE.

The true answer is that it is not the Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans who will lose political power but the UMNO-putras and their hangers-on in the other BN component parties – with ordinary Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region coming into their own to have rightful share in the decision-making process in a more democratic Malaysia.

It is time that UMNO and MCA leaders stop their irresponsible politics of “divide and rule” and compete with Pakatan Rakyat parties instead on “unite and rule” for a more democratic, just, prosperous and competitive Malaysia.

Lim Kit Siang is the DAP adviser & MP for Ipoh Timur

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Shaddap and GTFO of Dewan nepotistic term limitless creep!

DON’T BE SO ‘ULU’ DAP: Stop the APARTHEID OF BUMIPUTRA, have the GUTS to DEMAND level ground (below 3 items)!

Such disloyal and unpatriotic notions is all the more reprehensible as they are built on despicable lies and falsehoods, that the defeat of DAP in the 13th GE will result in the loss of political power of the Lim Family Bloc, Anwar Family Bloc and Karpal Family Blocs resulting in the family blocs, to quote one speech: “. . . if Pakatan goes down in this struggle, Pakatan does not have anything left. Pakatan will be(ing) brought down to their knees, and eventually become destitute in Pakatan’s own constituencies” to the empowerment of 3rd Force and the very rare handful of honest politicians within BN who subscribe top the above 3 items.

That fate may befall UMNO leaders – and that is if UMNO is incapable of reform even after being ousted from Putrajaya – but definitely it will not be the fate of the Malays.

This is because replacing UMNO/BN in Putrajaya will be the Pakatan Rakyat coalition comprising PKR, PAS and DAP – comprising Malaysians from all races, religions and regions representing the best interests of all.

Do MCA and the other BN component parties agree that if UMNO/BN loses in the 13GE, the Malays will lose political power?

MCA leaders are in fact saying the very opposite – telling the Chinese that if Pakatan Rakyat defeat UMNO/BN in the next general elections, the Chinese will lose even more political, economic, educational, socio-economic and citizenship rights!

Only the nepotistic and term limitless will lose power.

The true answer is that it is not the Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans who will lose political power but the DAP-putras and their hangers-on in the other Pakatan component parties – with ordinary Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region coming into their own to have rightful share in the decision-making process in a more democratic Malaysia by removing term limitless Lim Kitsiangs and Karpals and their families from family blocs in Parliament.

It is time that DAP and PKR leaders stop their irresponsible politics of “falsely-unify and rule-by-kicking out members and being dictators PAP style” and compete to match 3rd Force instead on “TERM LIMITS and END OF NEPOTISM” for a more democratic, just, prosperous and competitive Malaysia.

TWO important decisions at the recently concluded 21st Asean Summit in Phnom Penh were: the launch of the Asean Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and delaying the launch of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) by 12 months, from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2015, to iron out pending issues and prepare the necessary regulations.

RCEP is forged as an alliance between Asean and its six dialogue partners — Australia, China, India, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand — to create a free trade area with great potential for gains through economic cooperation.

To date, numerous free trade agreements (FTAs) and economic partnership agreements (EPAs) have been concluded between single Asean member nations and by Asean as a group with individual dialogue partners. However, the overlapping priorities, procedures and practices have reduced the effectiveness and the potential benefits of these agreements since businesses have to observe the different rules of these various arrangements while it has also increased the cost of utilising preferential concessions.

It is in that context that the Asean RCEP agreement, with its region-wide partners, has the potential to reduce the complexity arising from the current multiplicity of agreements by agreeing on a single package and focusing on Asean’s centrality in the region.

Second, RCEP would be a basis for more complementary regional integration initiatives, since the partnership is to be built on the experiences, strengths and drawbacks of the many existing FTAs and EPAs.

It is also hoped that the Asean RCEP could spur efforts to set up an FTA between China, Japan and South Korea, a prospect faced with several impediments still to be resolved. Once established on a firm footing among the three northeast Asian nations, it can certainly enhance further regional economic integration.

All these positive aspirations and moves to achieve effective regional economic integration pivot on the countries concerned strengthening their commitment to, and being ready to work towards, that very goal, both among Asean members and their dialogue partners.

And, it is here, that the decision to delay by 12 months the launching of the AEC becomes critical. In that time frame, all Asean members must make progress to fulfil and implement the agreed road map and targeted actions for the AEC. That must surely be a prerequisite for realising the broader goal of regional economic integration.

One should also keep in mind that RCEP might be perceived as a competitor to the United States-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). At present, only Australia, Brunei, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam are a part of the TPP, while several other Asean members and dialogue partners, notably China, are not — a fact that could cause conflict of interests and derail effective economic integration.

Such a situation, if not clearly demarcated so that both the TPP and RCEP mutually benefit its members, could easily complicate further the existing and planned business pacts in the region, and frustrate efforts to achieve effective regional economic integration.

Malaysia, as a founding Asean member, having successful economic ties with all major countries and given its presence in both the TPP and RCEP, can and should play a key role in helping to promote the success of the AEC and the wider goal of regional economic integration, especially in the current context of a globalised economic and trading regime.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

No. Malaysia may be a founding member of ASEAN, but has institutionalized apartheid in the social economic system and is nominally Islamo-extremist and Nazi style ethnic communalist to a certain level alongside extreme religious fundo-mindsets against LGBTs and other non-Muslim entertainments. These facts render Malaysia non-viable as an ASEAN signatory until corrected. So long as Malaysia has denied the minorities and non-Muslims :

Malaysia’s role in ASEAN will be limited and biased, value deducted and disunifying from sheer inequality of the APARTHEID of BUMIPUTRA applied against the superminority of 40% of the non-Muslim and non-Malay population.

This is supposed to be one of our ‘better’ less fundo ‘more liberal’ Malays. England has extended far too much courtesy and spotlight to this duplicituous sorry specimen of humanity while ignoring worthier Malaysian citizens.

ARTICLE 15

The women haters in Parliament – November 28, 2012

NOV 28 — So, we now have rules in Parliament to stop lawmakers from saying sexist things.

You can stop them saying sexist things but it doesn’t change their mentality. It doesn’t change the fact that both Umno and PAS have chauvinists in their ranks who demean women with their words and actions.

This is also the same man who said attractive women shouldn’t work as they can get husbands, unlike their “uglier” brethren.

If I were to tell one of our chauvinistic MPs to his face that he hated women, he would probably reply, “Of course, not! I love women!”

Of course you do.

You love having women in your kitchen.

You love having women in your bedroom.

You love women when they tell you you’re right. When they agree with you. When they’re meek, pliable and not nearly as good at anything you do.

And when some woman tells you off for something like sexism or chauvinism, you brush her off as some “man-hating feminist.”

There’s a big difference between chauvinism and chivalry, but to some Malaysian men, they seem to be one and the same.

You don’t have to be an MP to be sexist. Take former Umno Kota Kinabalu protem head, Roselan Johar Mohamed, who is famous not because he is current chair of the BIMP-Eeaga Malaysian Business Council but for saying “If you cannot fight rape, better lay down and enjoy it.”

He claims he got that from a proverb by Confucius. I counter with a real quote from Confucius: “To subdue one’s self and return to propriety, is virtue.” Or, in other words, the right thing to do is have enough self-control to conduct yourself properly.

By that measure, too many of our politicians are very un-virtuous indeed.

It’s not just the way our male politicians talk about women but the way female politicians are treated in this country.

Why the need for separate women’s wings? Why, for instance, can’t a woman contest for leadership positions against men in our political parties?

Why must there be separate wings and positions just for the women?

Why can’t, say, a woman be the division head for Umno Selangor? Heck, why can’t a woman be the mentri besar? Why aren’t any of the mentri besar women? Where in our constitution does it specify that a woman cannot be head of state?

The reality is that sexism and chauvinism are entrenched in our local as well as political cultures. Telling our MPs to be “good boys” in Parliament isn’t enough because all our men need to be taught to acknowledge women as equals.

Sexism, like racism, is something that will never really go away. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t do our level best to fight them.

You can start small by gently reprimanding someone like Bung by saying, “That’s a sexist thing to say.”

Mentally, feel free to imagine hitting him about the head with a rolled up newspaper. Even virtue has its limits.

(The writer would like to emphasise that she suggested to “imagine” and not actually perform acts of violence, no matter how tempting.)

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

i) You can stop them saying sexist things but it doesn’t change their mentality.

Hey you can’t stop people from thinking or saying what they want ‘Erna’. 1st Amendment Rights, Voltarian FREEDOM OF SPEECH (freedom of life)!

ii) It doesn’t change the fact that both Umno and PAS have chauvinists in their ranks who demean women with their words and actions.

Doesn’t change the fact that SOME women do prefer chauvinistic men enough to ignore any incidental ‘demeaning’ of women.

iii) Why the need for separate women’s wings? Why, for instance, can’t a woman contest for leadership positions against men in our political parties?

Erna are you a Muslim? UMNO and PAS are Muslim parties, seperate wings in fact are ‘Muslim Characteristics’, even though Malays are not Muslims to begin with. If Erna needs to be apostate, Erna should leave Islam, but do not try to change Islam’s gender segregation. In time Islam will become a petty cult with the relic of gender seperation, this does not mean that Islam should change.

iv) Heck, why can’t a woman be the mentri besar? Why aren’t any of the mentri besar women? Where in our constitution does it specify that a woman cannot be head of state?

Do some work to declare Malaysia a secular state don’t compl;ain here. In Islam, the Patriarchy is dominant, if Islam is the faith of the country, all Muslims should be aware that only men are MBs or CMs.Run for politics instead of carrying b@lls on the media portals. How about Erna run as the first apostate Malay woman MP candidate who will forward a bill for MBs to be women, or declaring Malaysia a secualar state Erna?

v) The reality is that sexism and chauvinism are entrenched in our local as well as political cultures.

AND some women like things this way too. And so long as there is demand, there will be supply.

vi) Telling our MPs to be “good boys” in Parliament isn’t enough because all our men need to be taught to acknowledge women as equals.

ALL OUR MEN? Sorry Erna, women are not the same as men, or vice versa, NOR are men ‘yours’, and cannot be equals in the manner hoped for. Some women recognize this, some can’t. Are you a lesbian or a man trapped in a woman’s body Erna? Erna should have a sex change needed, or if bigendered in preference, lobby for ‘shemale’ to be included on ICs, Passports and perhaps even specil notes on birth certificates stating sex change or bigenderism.

vii) Mentally, feel free to imagine hitting him about the head with a rolled up newspaper. Even virtue has its limits.

Somone’s into rough !@#. Nice! I’d say Erna is a closet lesbian, a man in a woman’s body (too many male hormones in food?), or (secretly?) wants to be dominated by a ‘Bung-like’ man.

viii) You love women when they tell you you’re right. When they agree with you. When they’re meek, pliable and not nearly as good at anything you do.

Some do some don’t. And as the song goes ‘ There’s someone for everyone . . .’ So stop picking on actually meek, pliable and ditzy women who are the raison d’etre of misogynistic men as much as meek, as much as pliable and ditzy women posing as such to seek the love of men they like even if these men are on the mental plane chauvinists! Some gaps in logic? Love and marriage is that nuanced, harems polygamous and polyandrous included . . . try the below link for some pretty normal looking polygamous families.

Under the correct circumstances, or without the right backers, the state would haul Erna up and decide Erna was insane and needed to be medicated the rest of Erna’s life. How absolutist can anyone get and without thinking through the above facts if not merely being a feminist demogogue intent on limiting the myriad forms of expression in marriage?

BERA – The government has tasked two cooperatives to get more Chinese traders to participate in the Retail Shop Transformation Project (Tukar) which has attracted less than 10 per cent of entrepreneurs from the community so far, Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said here.

The government had also provided an allocation of RM8 million to the cooperatives – Koperasi Jaya Diri Malaysia Bhd and Koperasi Peralihan Usahawan Bersatu Cina – to do the job, which involved disseminating information on the project in Chinese to the targeted traders, he said.

Ismail Sabri said Chinese traders were reluctant to participate in the project because they could not obtain clear explanation of the project.

“We hope the two cooperatives will help disseminate the relevant information on Tukar in Chinese dialects to the traders for them to better understand the project,” he told reporters after a dialogue with Chinese traders in Triang, here, yesterday.

Tukar is one of 13 Entry Point Projects under the Economic Transformation Programme to modernise 500 small retailers and co-operatives by the end of the year.

Ismail Sabri said it was not necessary for traders joining the Tukar project to sell only 1Malaysia products at their outlets as they could also sell other goods.

“The management of the business is upgraded under the Tukar project to be more systematic,” he said.

– Bernama

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Wednesday, 28 November 2012 20:00 posted by VQiong

Only opportunistic MCA cadre participated. No honourable Chinese will take up the offer.

ARTICLE 15

Muhyiddin: We are just and fair to all races – Wednesday, 28 November 2012 16:14

KUALA LUMPUR: UMNO’S track record of being a just and fair party to all races compares favourably with the dysfunctional state governments ruled by Pakatan Rakyat since the 2008 general election.

Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Pakatan leaders, so used to stoking racial sentiments and religious extremism, had alienated each other in states under its rule.

He said a deep mistrust, racial and religious chasm and differing ideologies and political beliefs could seal Pakatan’s fate.

In a rousing speech at the joint opening of the Wanita, Youth and Puteri delegates’ conference last night ahead of the party’s annual general assembly, Muhyiddin said:

“In Penang, DAP refuses to share power with Pas which has only one representative in the state assembly. Until today, none of the Pas members has been appointed as state executive council members.

“DAP went to the extent of appointing a Parti Keadilan Rakyat representative to handle the state religious portfolio although it knew that Pas was more qualified.

“Similarly in Kedah, the sole DAP assemblyman was not appointed as an exco in the Pas-ruled state while in Selangor, a Pas exco member and a DAP exco member had once clashed over the enforcement of Islamic laws in the PKR-led state.”

Muhyiddin added Pakatan’s win in the last general election served, therefore, as “a blessing in disguise for Barisan Nasional because it exposed its inability to work with each other”.

He said power sharing among opposition leaders “had never existed” because of mistrust.

As for Umno, the deputy prime minister said the party continued to protect the interests of all races.

“Umno has never discriminated against any race in its struggles for the Malays and Islam in the last 66 years.”

In an indirect reference to PKR’s de facto leader, Muhyiddin hit out at “an opposition leader” whom he said had requested help from a foreign country to oversee the electoral process.

“He is telling lies to the whole world that our election process is not clean. This is treason and a dirty tactic by a desperado.”

He said Malaysia under the BN administration had never reneged on its power-sharing promises in governing the country.

He also called on party members to give their all in the final lap before the general election.

“As party frontliners, Wanita, Pemuda and Puteri are the workhorses (pasukan tahan lasak). Go to all corners of the country and the cities, traverse valleys and the rivers, uphold our struggles and, God willing, we will parade our victory torch (in the general election).”

– New Straits Times

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Muhyiddin: We are just and fair to all races.

NO, BN and UMNO are not just or fair to all races. Muhyiddin is not fair to all races. There is no justice or fairness without :

We view with serious concerns the Malaysian government’s invitation to Sri Lankan President Mahinder Rajapaksa to attend the 8th World Islamic Economic Forum from December 4 to 6 (despite the latest report that he may not be attending).

This invitation is certainly disgraceful and outrageous as President Mahinda Rajapaksa is a suspected war criminal for mass atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan army including the massacres of Tamil civilians and captured LTTE fighters, targeted shelling of civilians, rape, sexual assault, abuse and murder. In April 2011, a UN expert report concluded that as many as 40,000 people were killed in the final weeks of the war between the LTTE and government forces.

Although Malaysia is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court (ICC), on 9 February, 2009 the government in its presentation at the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UNHRC stated that “Malaysia has undertaken a detailed study and held consultations to study the legal implications arising from the provisions of the Rome Statute. Despite several concerns, Malaysia is fully committed to the principles and the establishment of the ICC and their integrity.”

We therefore urge the Malaysian government to rescind the invitation to President Mahinda Rajapaksa as this invitation would send damaging signals to victims of mass atrocity in Sri Lanka and globally, Sri Lankan refugees worldwide including in Malaysia, and undermine Malaysia’s credibility on issues of justice and the principles of the ICC.

Seatbelts not fastened, but do we really want to be fined? Get the 222 MPs to remove the fine! If any driver wants to die in an accident from not wearing seatbelts (which is not likely in slow paced jammed up roads in the cities), thats their right to do so.

But fining people only profiteers off the citizens! RM150 is EXCESSIVE especially from this sort of ‘victimless traffic offence’ thing. Was anyone hurt because the driver was not wearing a seatbelt? Was the driver driving quickly? Was the driver doing so many maneuvers with the car that needed a seatbelt to be worn? So the driver without seatbelt on might just be enjoying a sense of FREEDOM and not being bound into a seat to better enjoy a car ride while NOT being criminal minded. WHY does the traffic code need to be so invasive and consider this a crime? Who wrote the code? Also consider that a person who earns less than 1500 a month and barely saves 150 a month is effectively being bled to death by this sort of fine for a traffic offence.

I strongly suggest that 1% of salaries by applied for fining, and NO FINE by applied for those not currently working. This means that a 1000.00 earner pays 10.00 for a traffic offence, with 3% and 10% being levied for more serious or dangerous offences. Just wait till I get my MP’s seat, prepare for MASSIVE overhauls of the system, so are we ready to vote and run for election alongside moi on this issue at least?

Percentage of salary based fines and bails (which seem to all say one thing – the rich are immune to justice and do not feel the pain of fines . . . ) BTW, the officer was ‘kind’ enough to offer to ‘ignore’ the 150 fine for a 50 ‘duit kopi’, but even though moi could have put the money to better use, some of us would rather pay the full 150 than encourage bribery and corruption in the police force. BUT BECAUSE some of us also do not believe in destroying a civil servants life with a brownnoser style report, I’ll leave the reporting of the bribery issue alone (no bribe paid anyway) and take on the state instead by running for candidacy (by proxy perhaps) simply to lower those damn fines or even amend the criminal codes as well. Whats the point of this sort of shameless profiteering?

Oh and the wheel clamp fine by police is excessive also, 50.00? What a waste of time and productivity, citizens may have slower traffic but saving money and time making trips to the payment counter makes for a happier citizen likelier to vote for the existing government. Plastic bags 0.20 cents? 0.05 cents more likely! To inform, out of sheer spirit some citizens hit with fines may not want to riot or turn cop-killers, but they sure as hell will try to screw the system if the system screws them. Whos’s with the 99% in screwing back the system by making fines salary based through forcing MPs to assent to the above by voting someone else? Lets amend the criminal code by kicking out the BN and Pakatan MPs! End the APARTHEID of BUMIPUTRA! BN and Pakatan look set to not grant :

;so why should we vote them and their 23K salaries? 99% are we ready to vote 3rd Force? Lets LOWER all MP salaries and traffic fines, ditch the Hudud elements in the criinal code ESPECIALLY for non-Muslims and by Human Rights ALLOW Muslims who really want to have Article 18 of the Human Rights Charter their right to exercise what the rest of HUMANITY can!

The last performance: RAF war veteran, 92, set to retire after playing his trumpet every Remembrance Sunday for five decades – by Liz Hull – PUBLISHED: 18:48 GMT, 10 November 2012 | UPDATED: 19:53 GMT, 10 November 2012

For half a century Sidney Patterson has played the Last Post at his local church on Remembrance Sunday in honour of Britain’s war dead.

Performing the poignant trumpet call is the 92-year-old’s way of honouring those who made the ultimate sacrifice for Queen and country.

But tomorrow’s rendition at Jesus Church, Troutbeck, in the Lake District, will be particularly moving for the former Royal Airforceman and musician because, after 50 years, it will be his last.

For five decades Sidney Patterson has played the Last Post at his local church on Remembrance Sunday in honour of Britain’s war dead

‘I started playing the Last Post in 1962 and have performed it every year since,’ Mr Patterson, a former lead trumpet with the London Palladium Orchestra, said yesterday.

‘I served in the RAF in the war, so it was just a small thing I wanted to do for all those servicemen who had given their lives for their country.

‘I feel honoured to perform it, but it has been 50 years so I thought I’d better call it a day.’

Mr Patterson, who is married with two grandchildren, learned to play the trumpet as a teenager growing up in Cardiff.

He joined the RAF when he was 18 and served as a leading aircraftman throughout the Second World War.

He was posted to Egypt and Aden, where he serviced Wellington aircraft looking for enemy submarines in the Persian Gulf.

It was during this time that he was asked to join the Band of the RAF Middle East, conducted by Squadron Leader Hugo Rignold, the renowned violinist who later went on to become the musical director of the Royal Ballet, as well as conducting the Liverpool Philharmonic and Birmingham Symphony Orchestras.
Tomorrow’s rendition of the Last Post at Jesus Church in the Lake District, will be particularly moving for the former Royal Airforceman and musician because, after 50 years, it will be his last

Tomorrow’s rendition of the Last Post at Jesus Church in the Lake District, will be particularly moving for the former Royal Airforceman and musician because, after 50 years, it will be his last

‘Both my mother and father were musical – my mother was a singer and my father played the piano, so they sent me off to learn the trumpet when I was about 14,’ he said.

‘I was quite talented at it and when I joined the RAF they asked me if I wanted to join the Band of the RAF Middle East.

‘We went on tours all over, through Palestine and North Africa, to entertain the troops. It was wonderful.’

Mr Patterson left the RAF, aged 26, in 1946 and continued to play with bands at grand venues such as London’s Mayfair Hotel and Grosvenor House, before being asked to play lead trumpet with the London Palladium Orchestra, who provided the live sound track for the acclaimed Sunday Night at the London Palladium television show, hosted by Bruce Forsyth, Jimmy Tarbuck and other famous stars in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

At the same time as performing Mr Patterson trained to be a chiropodist and eventually moved to Kendal to raise his two children with his wife, Morfydd, 85.

Mr Patterson was first asked to play the Last Post by his local British Legion in 1962. Initially, he performed in the church tower, but old age forced him to move to the porch a few years ago

He continued playing his trumpet with a local Big Band in his spare time until he finally retired from music aged 88.

Mr Patterson was first asked to play the Last Post by his local British Legion in 1962. Initially, he performed in the church tower, but old age forced him to move to the porch a few years ago because he could not manage to scale the stone staircase.

‘They used to joke and call me the phantom bugler because no-one could see where I was playing from,’ he added.

‘Nowadays I play the Last Post from the porch. It is a moving piece and I’ve had my trumpet out for the past couple of weeks to practice my scales and get my lips working again so I can do it justice.’

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

The musician’s post in obviously limited positions should be rotated among various persons who want to play. The most competent and most specialised (i.e. plays at many locales and does not have another non-musician job etc..) should be on a list to play. While this would mean that salaries would not be monthly based and personnel could not make a living on being a musician alone, many more people would have a chance to play for military bands. A single person playing for decades shuts out everyone else. If Patterson is replaced by another musician for the same decades long stints, then a lack of democracy would be in effect again.

ARTICLE 2

New dawn? This looks more like a new dusk – by Simon Heffer – PUBLISHED: 22:19 GMT, 7 November 2012 | UPDATED: 09:03 GMT, 9 November 2012

The next four years for America look bleak. It’s not so much a new dawn as a new dusk. And with 50 months left in power, President Obama, his hands tied by a Republican-controlled House of Representatives, is a lame duck already.

He was re-elected despite a majority of voters thinking the economy is on the wrong track. And with tax rises that could wreck recovery due on January 1 – the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ – experts fear a recession here in 2013.

The most sensible policy – which a Romney administration would have pursued – is deficit reduction. Instead, the second Obama term will increase the deficit, further diminishing America’s economic power and credibility.
Lame duck :President Obama, pictured with his wife and daughters at an election night party, has his hands tied by a Republican-controlled House of Representatives

Contradiction: Obama won the election with a decent majority over Romney, despite a majority of voters thinking the economy is on the wrong track

Around $1trillion a year will be added to debt – bringing the total to $20trillion by 2016. This will drive up interest rates on US bonds, and hard-pressed Americans will have to pay more taxes to fund higher interest payments.

Meanwhile, the President is determined to push through his ‘Obamacare’ health insurance policy, which would account for a large part of that increase.

But the Democrats are well aware that the pumping of federal money into corporate bail-outs and infrastructure projects in declining regions is the key to creating a state clientele that keeps voting them back into office.

The administration is already devising stealth taxes to help pay for the bribes it wishes to offer the coalition of minorities that comprise its supporters. Some will corrode the core of American self-reliance, such as taxes on any substantial capital gains made from house sales. Others are simply opportunist, such as a tax on tanning salons.
Commander in chief: Obama was elected by the country to serve another four years in the White House

Obama’s ‘Obamacare’ aims to increase the governments funding of healthcare for Americans, but will cost billions- adding to the crippling debt

These are all measures of how desperate the financial situation is – a reality apparently kept from most of the American electorate, so far.

Washington observers speak of the incompetence of the Obama administration – not just its ability to waste money, but also to target funds so badly. There is very little to show for the $787billion fiscal stimulus of 2009. A fraction of it could have been used to create serious sea defences around New York and New Jersey, to avoid the devastation of last week’s storm, for example.

Sensible: Mitt Romney (seen here with his wife Ann during his election night rally in Boston) would have pursued deficit reduction, which is the most viable option to save America’s economy

Many feel that Super-storm Sandy occurring so close to the election swung many voters in Obama’s favour

Swingeing taxes that fall disproportionately on wealth-creators and entrepreneurs will not be all that stalls an economic recovery. So too will a failing national infrastructure whose state of disrepair is beyond pork-barrel handouts from Washington to local communities, but requires a big federal programme – and big federal money.

Roads, rail and airports all cry out for investment and improvement. But as long as money is thrown at failing industries – such as in the car industry bail-out that helped Mr Obama win Ohio and Michigan this week – the administration cannot afford to take big strategic decisions such as these.

The domestic economy is, however, only the beginning of Mr Obama’s problems. The Republicans will do all they can in the House to obstruct high-spending and socially damaging policies – creating legislative deadlock.

And as America subsides into a welfarist, subsidy culture, so will its paranoia about China – already running at near-hysterical levels in some manufacturing regions – grow. America increasingly fears China both as an economic and a military titan – the two components of being a superpower.

Defence cuts in America are inevitable once the borrowing binge brings serious damage to the economy – as it will by mid-term, if not before – and that will increase the nation’s sense of vulnerability towards the Chinese.

And America’s intractable unemployment problem – it was 8 per cent when President Obama assumed office and is 7.9 per cent now – is increasingly perceived as the result of a highly disciplined and well-trained workforce in China that systematically undercuts over-regulated American business.

Mr Obama must choose a new Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton – who may well run for the Democratic nomination in 2016 – has signalled a wish to stand down. Whoever succeeds her – and a favourite is John Kerry, who lost the 2004 presidential election to George W Bush – has to deal with Iran’s determination to become a nuclear power, and that state’s continuing threats against Israel.

The human cost of such a conflict would be terrible, and American diplomacy might not be equal to preventing either Israel or Iran choosing to strike at the other.

Less widely appreciated is the catastrophic effect it would have on the global economy through oil prices, and especially on an America that is already hobbling.

Team: Obama called Biden ‘America’s happy warrior’ as he paid tribute to his role in the election campaign

Obama’s supporters claim the worst is over, and the best is yet to come.

Such clichés patronise not merely the American public who, by re-electing him, have chosen the soft option rather than a confrontation with economic reality. They also patronise a substantial part of the developed world that, even if it no longer looks to America for political leadership, relies for its standard of living on the US being economically strong.

On the evidence of the past four years, notably Mr Obama’s record of serial economic incompetence, the next four are going to be exceptionally trying – and, sadly, not just for Americans.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Just moi? Or is Dailymail exhibiting so subtle a racism that even the targets could appreciate racism. Dusk = darkness = . . .

Sometimes human conflict is not the issue but when ‘fanatics’ (heres one with all the winks and nudges Dailymail might appreciate . . . ) are going to infiltrate the country and pull a 911 or a Subway bomb (really hope these are not CIA and MI6 contrived agitprop to further an Orwellian state), Obama joining in such a conflict is the least of humanity’s problems. Perhaps in the interest of preserving genetic propensities that might be inserted into the correct ‘warriors’ in the distant future, warzones should be created for these sorts to retire to. Evil Microstates for ‘fanatics’ anyone? Can’t imagine a faith’s peoples being barred from entering such and such states, but this might well be the best bet if USA wants to ‘keep safe’. Tourists are just too disingenuous to overlook, and Muslim Tourists are an oxymoron if anything in so many ways.

There will be a permanent chilling of relations hereon but human cost of conflict will continue so long as oppressive governments are allowed to frustrate their citizens entertainment wise, and politically, or bore their citizens with theocracy into mindless obedience (there is nothing else but prayer, so killing and dying would be a release to would be terrorists) reacting with violence. Religion does that, ESPECIALLY Islam or any religion that denies pleasure or recreation or refuses to legalise organics psychedelics, RLDs and distribute wealth and land equitably (Occupy Movement, various Riots in Western nations) instead of sharing and allowing FUN.

The world without religion, but lots of fun activities, interesting food and drugs to try out (under medical supervision so that no ODs occur, then again if they die, no loss either – self inflicted), and no need to work may not be very much for a capitalist, fascist or moralist to play with (Theocrats tend to be fascist moralists and are surrounded by trappings of extreme Capitalism . . . ) and who needs these nuts, but there will always be pockets of ambitions and technologically inclined that will not need war at that point to progress mankind even as everyone else lounges around. As for war and invasions, the 2nd Amendment should extend to ownership of military grade weapons and craft. If every 10 billion-and-above-aire were required to maintain and own an air craft carrier or every billionaire wee required to own a Cruiser class vessel, the lack of weapons issue would not be a problem. If every citizen above 18 drove a Tank or APC, or owned a Howitzer the USA (or planet) would be ‘uninvadable’. But instead we have CITIZENS paying for a police and military which is used to oppress fellow citizens. Think of expansions to the 2nd amendment! Try the response to article 4 link below :

UPDATE 3:03 p.m. King and Pierce County prosecutors are dismissing more than 220 misdemeanor marijuana cases in response to Tuesday’s vote to decriminalize small amounts of pot.

In King County, 175 cases are being dismissed involving people 21 and older and possession of one ounce or less. I-502 makes one ounce of marijuana legal on Dec. 6, but King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg decided to apply I-502 retroactively.

“Although the effective date of I-502 is not until December 6, there is no point in continuing to seek criminal penalties for conduct that will be legal next month,” Satterberg said in a statement.

The dismissed cases involved arrests in unincorporated King County, as well as the state highways and the University of Washington. About 40 of the cases had already been filed in court as criminal charges; those charges will be dismissed. Another 135 cases were pending charging decisions and will simply be returned to the arresting police agency.

Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said he was dismissing “about four dozen” pending cases where misdemeanor marijuana was the only offense. He said his staff was continuing to prosecute other cases where possession was secondary to a more serious charge, such as drunken driving.

“The people have spoken through this initiative,” said Lindquist. “And as a practical matter, I don’t think you could sell a simple marijuana case to a jury after this initiative passed.”

In an interview, Satterberg said his office would continue to prosecute marijuana possession above one ounce, allowing for “a buffer for those whose scales are less than accurate.” His office also charges felony possession — for people with more than 40 grams — although he said his staff routinely allows those defendants to plead down to a misdemeanor.

“I think when the people voted to change the policy, they weren’t focused on when the effective date of the new policy would be. They spoke loudly and clearly that we should not treat small amounts of marijuana as an offense,” he said.
I-502 campaign manager Alison Holcomb said she was “incredibly moved” by Satterberg’s announcement, which she said showed “incredible courage.”

The decision supports a prime argument I-502 made during the campaign. A study by a group of academics found there had been 241,000 misdemeanor marijuana possession cases in Washington over the past 25 years, 67,000 of them in the past five years. “If 502 hadn’t passed, we’d see the same amount of marijuana possession cases every year,” she said. “What makes a difference is changing the law.”

Satterberg is the first prosecutor to change charging policy after I-502, but other prosecutors are also considering these cases. Tom McBride of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys said his office “just starting to work through those issues.”

Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes has refused to prosecute misdemeanor possession cases since he took office.

Earlier this week, the chief criminal deputy prosecutor in Spokane County, Jack Driscoll, appeared to take a more conservative position. He told the Spokesman-Review that, even after Dec. 6, the only marijuana which was legal to possess was pot sold in the state-licensed stores called for in I-502. Those stores won’t be created for at least a year.

“The only thing that is legal is selling marijuana through those stores,” Driscoll said. “That will be regulated by the state. You can’t under this initiative have an ounce of marijuana that doesn’t come from a state-issued provider. You still can’t have black-market marijuana.”

Holcomb disputed that interpretation. So did Satterberg, who called it a “very narrow reading” of the initiative. “I don’t know how you trace where (the marijuana) comes from,” he said.
Satterberg said he expected federal authorities to seek an injunction to block implementation of I-502’s state licensing scheme for marijuana retailers and growers. “I think it’s the kind of issue the U.S. Supreme Court will have a final word on,” said Satterberg, calling it an “an important state’s rights issue.”
But he does not expect a federal lawsuit to target the types of cases he is dismissing, noting that states already have widely divergent penalties for marijuana possession.

All they did was smoke something Mother Nature grew for them. Why should they suffer in jail AND at the taxpayer’s expense as well? Finally the justice system is STARTING (only barely, lots of term limitless/collusion/uncontrolled-capitalism/studentdebt-financiar-complex type issues!) making sense.

ARTICLE 4

No holds barred: The professional ‘cuddler’ who makes $260 a day by inviting strangers to take a nap with her at home

Spooning peacefully in a double bed, this pair could be any normal couple on a Sunday morning.

But revisit the scene an hour later and Jackie Samuel will be curled up in the arms of another man.

The 29-year-old is a professional cuddler. She turned to snuggling with strangers to help pay for her studies and provide for her young son.
Comfort zone: Jackie Samuel cuddles her client at The Snuggery in Rochester, New York

She added: ‘Some have said I am worse than a prostitute because they think snuggling is more intimate than sex. I’ve been told I’m monetizing love.’

One of her repeat customers, who would only give his name as Tim, disagrees with her critics.

He said Jackie’s cuddles had helped him following a bad break-up and described the sessions as ‘meditative’.

He even said he would continue to see her while in a relationship.

‘There’s no cheating element, it’s not immoral,’ he said.

Little spoon: But Jackie draws the line at intimate touching

Bedtime reading: Jackie says she has a number of repeat customers

Jackie cuddles up to 30 men a week as well as a number of women

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

This is just to HOLD, not ‘HAVE’. Auric prostitution? Different from sexual prostitution. But still prostitution. To each their own then, but considering the price for doing nothing and just sleeping on the job, barring contract caveats to prevent incidental abuse, this is excessive!

ARTICLE 5

The anorexic statement

Trust me, notice me, feed me: every female body conveys a message. So, when a woman starves herself, what is she saying? – by Rachel Cusk Published 31 October 2012

I knew a woman whose job it was to take anorexics to the swimming pool. She was an occupational therapist: eating disorders were her field. She worked at a nearby clinic and we bumped into one another from time to time.

I found myself curious about her work, or more truthfully about her patients, those singular modern-day martyrs to the cause of their own bodies. Without quite knowing why, as I have grown older I have become more interested in – it could even be said, more respectful of – what might be called the anorexic statement. Perhaps it’s because, as the 45-year-old English mother of two children, my body has little power of provocation or utterance; or rather, that what it’s said or tried to say through the years hasn’t seemed to have added up to all that much. Quite what constitutes the anorexic statement I’m not entirely sure. All the same, it has a great power of disruption. It’s a stray spoke under the wheel of things that otherwise have the capacity to hurtle on headlong: family life, fashion, the destiny of the female body. The statement might be: help me. Or it might simply be: stop.

My therapist acquaintance herself had not been allowed to be picky in life, growing up in a family of brothers on a farm in the Australian outback. She knew how to shoot, drive a tractor, ride a horse bareback. She had left that rough home and come to the UK, where every couple of years for the sake of change she moved job and town – Slough, Birmingham, Chelmsford – though her solitude and her line of work did not alter. She neither sought nor seemed to expect much in the way of pleasure. In the evenings she made a sandwich and read a book in her rented room; her main meal was lunch in the canteen at the clinic, where food was plentiful and cheap. This somewhat joyless attitude to nourishment could come as no surprise, given that she spent her days among females who regarded the ingestion of a teaspoonful of peas as a physical and spiritual crisis. Once a week she led them to the poolside, skeletal and pale, for all the world to see. Even at the swimming pool these curious beings detected the threat of penetration, of the outside coming in. They didn’t want to get in the water, not, apparently, because they felt self-conscious or exposed, but for fear that they might swallow some of it without its calorific content having been established.

The easiest thing that could be said about my acquaintance was that she herself was impenetrable. Her choice of career must have sprung from some initial attraction to or sympathy with the anorexic state, but most often what she appeared to feel for her waifish charges was irritation, even anger. Anger is a common response, it seems, to the anorexic statement. At the very least, returning from a day spent on the receiving end of that statement, my acquaintance was hard put to feel – as they say – good about herself. If the anorexic is someone for whom the relationship between female being and female image must, on pain of death, be resolved, it may be that she denies that resolution to those who cross her path. They become the witnesses of her vulnerability; as such, she is more real than they. Like with the ascetic of old, her self-denial is a form of chastisement, yet the extremity of her appearance is confusing. Being female, it seeks attention, but of an unusual kind. It asks to be mothered – yet what if its aim is indeed to challenge the reality of the mother-figure and overpower it, to triumph over her, to consign her to flesh and steal her image? The anorexic is out to prove how little she needs, how little she can survive on; she is out, in a sense, to discredit her nurturers, while at the same time making a public crisis out of her need for nurture. Such vulnerability and such power: it brings the whole female machinery to a halt. My acquaintance had tales of rudeness and tantrums and sulks, of behaviour more commonly read about in childcare manuals (of the kind whose purpose, we are told, is to “test the boundaries”), even of a degree of personal insult which at the very least, I suppose, mothers aren’t paid to tolerate. She had no children of her own. And so, in an admirable interpretation of the social contract, she recognised she had something in that line to give.

Jenefer Shute offers some riveting descriptions of such interactions, between the anorexic inpatient Josie and her carers, in her novel Life-Size. “In the body,” Josie chillingly muses, “as in art, perfection is attained not when there’s nothing left to add, but when there’s nothing left to take away.”

Armed with this credo, she can exercise contempt on everyone around her (“They say I’m sick, but what about them, who feast on corpses?”), in what becomes a radical reliving of her primary experiences of nurture. And it needs to be radicalised: this is the moral value of the anorexic statement, that it asks questions not just of mothers or fathers or fashion editors, but of the whole societal basis for the female image. This time around, Josie can speak her mind. She can criticise the people who care for her; she can re-experience the powerlessness of childhood and know it for what it is. So unpleasant is she to the “freckled cow” who nurses her that she finally gets the reprimand she has apparently been asking for:

“Josephine, I must ask you please not to speak to me like that. I’m not your servant.” And then, unable to contain herself: “And would you please look at me when I talk to you? It really gets on my nerves.” Coldly, victoriously, I remain precisely as I am. She really should have more control.

Soon after, however, the 68-pound tyrant, having agreed at last to eat something or be force-fed through a tube, makes a revealing request of her nurse: “I want you to feed me,” she says.

My acquaintance found it hard to muster much interest in herself at the day’s end. She rarely went out or saw people: it was as though her work had bled her of confidence. She sought not public interactions but the determined security of her private boundary. In the evenings she changed into loose clothes, shut herself in her room, shut herself into a book. She wanted to be where no one could demand anything of her, like a depleted mother, except with none of the prestige of motherhood. She never kept company with men, and her female world was wholly predicated on an insidious notion, that certain women are there to give attention and others to receive it. Sometimes it seemed that her patients had indeed stolen her image and left her with nothing to trade, nothing to barter with for some share of the world’s interest. They had stolen her image and left her a mere body that could find no reflection or definition for itself. She went back home for a few weeks on holiday and returned browner, more animated, and heavier. All that meat they went in for, meat roasted over a fire and served at every meal. But more to the point, a world in which food was an entitlement and a human bond.

In her own world food had become a weapon: her evening sandwich and her indifference were a kind of savourless pacifism she exercised against it. She spent her days among people who denied themselves food in order to experience, perhaps, power, whose apparent intention to make themselves invisible made them, in fact, visible, who had discovered that by becoming less they became more. And no­where was this clearer than in the fact that they required her as their witness, for disappearing was no fun unless someone noticed you’d gone. But if anyone was disappearing, if anyone was becoming invisible, it was she.

The question of how she had come to be stranded in this place remains difficult to answer, but its source may lie in the very practicality – the tractors, the horses – she had crossed the world to escape. Denied her own experience of femininity, she had perhaps embarked on a kind of pilgrimage to find and serve these notable victims to the riddling perversity of feminine values. She could help them, sit with them while they wept and shrieked over a teaspoonful of peas, she who had never had the temerity to question or refuse anything she had been given; she who was not important enough, as it were, to be anorexic, for the hieratic significance of the anorexic body depends on it having been ascribed a value in the first place. Had she tried to starve herself on the farm where she grew up, she might simply have died: her protest, in any case, would not have been understood. She had taken photographs of this place, on her recent trip home. In order to capture its isolation, she had photographed it from a distance, recording the miles of surrounding scrubland in a sequence of separate frames that she laid one next to another across the table in a long connecting strip. Amid these featureless wastelands she defied me to locate her home, and though my eyes searched and searched the landscape it was true that I could find no evidence of human habitation. She laughed, with an unmistakable and strangely exhilarated pride, and laid her finger over a low brown shape that crouched amid the boulders and bushes that extended all around it, on and on to the white horizon. It was so small her fingertip covered it. “There it is,” she said.

It may seem superfluous for a 45-year-old mother-of-two to say that she does not exult in the life of the body, but let’s just call it a place to begin. At the very least, as a statement, it raises numerous lines of inquiry. One might be: is it obligatory, or even a moral duty, to take pleasure in one’s own physical being? Leaving aside for a moment the question of what definition of pleasure one could possibly arrive at in this particular hall of mirrors, is the value of the physical quest in any way comparable with that of the artistic, the emotional, the spiritual?

I understand the anorexic’s notion of pleasure far better than the hedonist’s. Sometimes it has seemed to me that the second kind of pleasure is consequent on the first, that the life of sensation can be accessed only from a place of perfect self-discipline, rather as strict religious practices were once believed to constitute the narrow path to heaven. The anorexic, like the ascetic before her, publicly posits the immolation of the flesh as a manifestation of a primary physical discontent she is on her way to escaping: she represents a journey whose starting point is disgust. Body is found to be not only intolerable to but weaker than mind – how, then, can its desires and yearnings be taken seriously? The anorexic statement suggests a second body, one that will be painstakingly encroached on and attained; and hence, a second template for desire. This second body will belong to its owner as the first did not: its desires, therefore, will be experienced as not shameful, but true.

The female form is inherently susceptible to this duality, but the difficulty with the anorexic statement is that once it becomes open to other readings it breaks down. At some point in the journey a line is crossed: the slim body becomes the freakish starved body, and one by one the anorexic’s grounds for superiority are discredited and revoked. She is not beautiful but repellent, not self-disciplined but out of control, not enviable but piteous, and, most disappointing of all, she is publicly courting not freedom and desire but death. Even she may find these things difficult to believe. How to go back, on that journey? How to retrace one’s steps? For in getting where she needed to go the anorexic had to sacrifice the concept of normality. In a manner of speaking she sold her soul. She can never be “normal” about food or flesh again. So, how is she meant to live?

If the anorexic arouses irritation, even anger, it may be this quitting of normality that is to blame, because the female management of normality is a formidable psychical task from which most women don’t feel entitled to walk away. By quitting it she exposes it, she criticises it as a place to live, and moreover she forces each woman who passes her way to choose between denial and recognition of her statement, disgust.

Is it disgusting to be a woman? Menstruation, lactation, childbirth, the sexualisation of the female body – in recognising these things as her destiny, a girl is asked to forget everything that her prepubescent instincts might formerly have suggested to her. In becoming female she must cease to be universal, and relinquish the masculine in herself that permitted her as a child to find the idea of these things disgusting indeed. Likewise that masculine is now embodied for her in men, so the question becomes – do men find women disgusting? The anorexic statement dispenses with that perspective. It returns the woman to the universality of the child, and from that fusion formulates itself: I find myself disgusting.

If it has become a cultural cliché that women want to be thin more than they want to be loved (the three most cherished words these days, so the saying goes, being not “I love you” but “You’ve lost weight”), and moreover that they want to be thin not for men but for one another, the general observer might be tempted to view this as making the case for male innocence (at last!), even male redundancy.

Yet, looked at another way, the male and the preponderance of male values are perhaps more culpable in the incrimination of the female form than ever. An eating disorder epidemic suggests that love and disgust are being jointly marketed, as it were; that wherever the proposition might first have come from, the unacceptability of the female body has been disseminated culturally. Is it possible that disgust has finally got, in the famed male gaze, the upper hand? From whom, after all, has a woman ever wished to hear the words “I love you” but a man?

In Life-Size, Jenefer Shute posits the anorexic state as having two separate sources, one in the female (subjective, mother) and the other in the male (objective, father). Between them they engender in the anorexic subject the confusion between being and image of which one might suppose her to be merely an extreme cultural example. Mother – the female body – is indeed the source of disgust, but it is father – if one can be permitted the leap of seeing father as analogous with male and, indeed, with society – who makes that disgust public and hence catalyses it into shame. Without father, mother might merely have passed her disgust silently on to daughter, where it would have remained as an aspect of her private, interior being. But father brings it to the surface: it is something not just felt but now also seen. These confirmations, in Shute’s narrative, of interior suspicion (am I disgusting?) by outward commentary (yes, you are) are fatal to female self-perception in ways that might seem obvious but are none­theless intractable.

Outside and inside – image and being – are now held to be one: the girl/woman revisits and tests this impossibility by becoming the observer – the male – herself, looking at and remarking on the bodies of other women. Naturally, the discovery that image can be changed is not new: it is and always has been part of becoming a woman, in a sense that, although slenderness has long been a feminine ideal, self-hatred and the compulsion to starve oneself to death have broadly not. The question of disgust returns, accompanied by its shadow, the question of pleasure.

A personal admission: not long ago, in a period of great turmoil, I lost a considerable amount of weight. The first thing to say about this is that I was unaware, inexplicably, that it had happened. That my clothes no longer fitted passed me by: I noticed it only because other people told me so. They appeared shocked: each time I met someone I knew, there it would be, shock, a startled expression on the face. At first, I was startled in turn. They were not seeing who they expected to see; who, then, were they seeing? After a while I got used to it: indeed, I came to expect, almost to require it. A newborn baby needs to be mirrored by another human being in order to grasp that she has an outward surface, that this “self” has an appearance, that her image speaks. Through the shock of others I learned that I, too, had been shocked, that I was no longer the person I once was. My image was speaking, to me as well as to other people, telling me things I did not yet appear to know or realise.

But eventually the question of “normality” returned, as it must in the life of a 45-year-old mother-of-two. Stop, help me, feed me: this may have been my cry, but the truth was there was no one, any more, to answer. There could be no illusion, as an adult; I had left it too late to stage this apotheosis, this defeat of the first body, predicated as it is on the expectation of rescue. I had to draw back from it myself. And this was where the problem arose, because, like the anorexic, I found I could not retrace my steps, could not, as it were, go back to sleep. For years I had lived in my body half-consciously, ignoring it mostly, dismissing its agendas wherever I could, and forever pressing it into the service of mental conceptions that resulted, almost as a by-product, sometimes in its pleasuring and sometimes in its abuse. People were always telling me I should do yoga: this was one of the running jokes I had against my own flesh, for the idea that I would suspend the intellectual adventure of living even for one hour to dwell in the dumb and inarticulate realm of the auto-corporeal was as unappealing as that of spending an evening with someone I disliked. Now, as the weeks passed, instead of shock, my appearance was beginning to elicit milder manifestations of concern. I didn’t know what it meant: had I changed again? Was I no longer fragile and vulnerable? I had no idea. Never before in my life had I dared to be fragile, and all I knew was that I wasn’t ready to leave what I had become. “Have you ever thought of doing yoga?” someone said.

As a teenager I had been tormented by hunger and by an attendant self-disgust, for I saw in other girls a balance, an openness of form, that suggested they had nothing inside of which they need be ashamed. Their bodies were like well-schooled ponies, handsome and obedient, whereas I had a monster inside me whose appeasement was forever disrupting the outward surface of life. It craved so many things it could barely discriminate between them, and so indiscrimination – the failure to distinguish between what mattered and what didn’t, what helped and what didn’t, what it needed and what just happened to be there – became its public nature. It wanted, in fact, what it could get, in the light of what it couldn’t.

How thoroughly the tangible and the in­tangible confused themselves in those years. Creativity, the placement of internal material into space, the rendering tangible, became my weapon against that confusion.

When I left my boarding school – the blue serge uniform and the Cambridgeshire drizzle, the plates of stodge that were so predictable and real, the torturing sense of female possi­bilities that were not – I learned to manage the monster, more or less. Like the first Mrs Rochester it had a locked room of its own, from which it sometimes succeeded in breaking free to rend into shreds my fantasies of femininity, but I had set my mind on higher things. By locking up the monster I was making myself at heart unfree: what did I know of freedom in any case? I was accustomed to fantasy and to the safety – albeit uncomfortable – it supplied, and the notion of an integrated self was the most uncomfortable fantasy of all. In a sense, it was the monster: I could neither kill it nor live with it, and so there it remained, caged, bellowing and banging intermittently through the years, creating perhaps the sense of something amiss in those who came close to me, but caged all the same.

Yoga, understandably enough, was out: nothing could have persuaded me to enter that cage armed only with a sun salute. But my sudden emaciation in middle age did bring me into contact with the monster again, for, amid all the other losses, there in the rubble of the desecrated life, I appeared to see it lying dead at my feet. The Jungian notion of the “middle passage”, in which at mid-life all the templates for self expire or fall away, in which with sufficient destruction one has a chance to return to the blankness of birth, might have explained that death well enough to avoid detection: it simply went up in the fire, the horrible secret, along with everything else. And here, after all, was a chance to be free of my own image, the bind in which my body had held me for all these years, because, while wanting more than anything to be feminine, I had only and ever found my own femininity disgusting. This image, knitted together over time by questions and confirmations (Am I disgusting? Yes, you are), was one I was now prepared to sustain: I was poised to make the anorexic statement, to vanish, to let image and being finally become one.

But of course, no such thing occurs: there is no “letting”, no seamless transposition of the flesh. The anorexic body is held in the grip of will alone; its meaning is far from stable. What it says – notice me, feed me, mother me – is not what it means, for such attentions constitute an agonising test of that will, and also threaten to return the body to the dreaded “normality” it has been such ecstasy to escape.

For the first time since my teenage years I found myself tormented again by hunger: the monster had awoken from its slumber, bigger and more ferocious than ever. The route back to normality being blocked, I have had to devise other ways of getting there, or of seeming to. My occupational therapist acquaintance tells me that many of her patients are women of my age, women who have suddenly tried to slip the noose of their female flesh once its story – menstruation, lactation, childbirth – has been told in all its glory and shame.

When I relate this to my female friends they take it humorously, rolling their eyes and laughing, gallantly owning up – oh yes, they say, we know – to monsters of their own. Most of them haven’t delivered themselves into its jaws quite so thoroughly as I have; their dislike of their own bodies is a kind of low-level irritant, a necessary component of the female environment, but to think about it too much would spoil everyone’s fun.

I don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun, either, though for now I have spoiled my own. It did seem, for a while, as though the death-state of physical denial might contain the possibility of transcendence, the chance to step out of my self-disgust and make true contact at last: contact of my “real”, my second, self with the outer world. That I felt this had always been denied me, that in the negotiation between being and image all, for me, had been lost, was a stark kind of truth to face up to. Passing other women in the street these days, I seem to hear their bodies speaking. A lot of what they say is unclear to me, or at the very least so foreign that it takes me a moment to translate it. For instance: I accept myself. Or: respect me. The ones I like best are the ones that say, trust me. What I will never be able to hear unequivocally, whether whispered or shrieked, is: desire me. Notice me, feed me, mother me. Passing by the anorexic girl, stepping lightly and silently in the shadows, I hear her message and in a way I salute her for it. Other bodies have other messages, but for this one I have ears.

Rachel Cusk is most recently the author of “Aftermath: on Marriage and Separation” (Faber & Faber, £12.99)

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Way above the usual affirmative feminist nonsense (have you been sucking on my brains? (jk), though an article focused around normal people would have been better and reached more people. Sensitive and well timed to balance the spate of overweight affirmative articles recently. Thin and sickly are as valid as overfat, and will doubtless have fans as well though not so many being non-mainstream.

The site of the Japanese military’s largest “comfort station” in Asia during the Second World War is crumbling away, in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province. (CNS Photo/Yang Bo)

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Contrived article? Then caution friends when addressing, but since this article is sort of interesting, do read – but with caution!

Perhaps the negativity of the place’s former purpose could be used by installing a similar purposed place like a strip club or brothel featuring specifically Japanese red light culture and Japanese women! In spiritual terms, a brothel directly based on Chinese joy over Japanese abuse could be the spiritual death of the subsequent generations of Japanese who’s previous generations (all those not involved in the Nanjing Holocaust are not the Japanese that any logical Chinese want to target, many good Japanese people had no part or older generation that gained from such actions – those who have can be determined as friend or foe and TWICE foe if anti-Chinese AND who have taken part in the Holocaust and should be very wary of righteous anger . . . how would they feel if China did the same to Japan?) abused comfort women in Jiangsu.

Does China have the will to legalise Red Light Districts? A portion of Japan’s population would be ‘controlled’ by this very action . . . also in a lesser sense the military of Japan as well (lesser because regular citizens lack the discipline of the formal military trained person). Until Japan apologises and seeks out the subsequent generations of all families with forced comfort women in their history (a very small percentage were consensual but that does not make forcing probably 99% into slavery) to compensate and apologise, the curse upon the backs of Chinese merrymakers in every former comfort station, could well damn the Japanese for generations to come with a single protective caveat being that all who do not speak Chinese or are ethnic Chinese be disallowed entry. This method is a synchronicity based occult attack, that another race in South East Asia is attempting to down China by, so will China do the appropriate . . .

ARTICLE 6

Shemales – posted by mtairara on 30/07/2012

Male?? female?? Shemale?? What are you?? These are the questions being asked and a buzz has formed around the entire LSCK reports the Eltorros Bulletin. It all started when a certain Bright Nunoo could not stomach these mysterious characters hovering around the group and their sex was not known, in particular; one Kadioli Kadjo who was the subject of interest of LSCKWA(liverpool supporters club Kenya wolves association) had been the cause of mind bending concern and questions had to be raised. in a shocking revelation; Kadjo confessed to being a woman and well before the dust could settle, he had received inbox messages, some even rumoured to go as far as as for ‘her’ hand in marriage. Investigative journalist Tush Ole Muyah exposed the shemale for what it really was and this did not go down well with a mr Lyatuu Cornel Andrew who proceeded to launch a rant; Lyatuu who is not used to being one to take matters laying down was not impressed when the two most famous group Shemales Monkey Bobby and Kadjo were competing who the better female was.
Back to the inbox story, it has been rumoured that Victor Sergon together with other un-named members of the group held talks on a personal level with the intention to ‘sign’ kadjo into thier hearts.
After this whole debacle, Kadjo proceeded to assure the group members that he was a man(which now begs the question on his sexual orientation) and that the lady in the photo is his wife. The question on people’s minds now is this; Since Kadjo is in japan where there are alot of cross dressers, when he comes to kenya, will someone lift up his skirt and reveal his ‘man-gina’??
Kadjo also proceeded to produce the following statement
‘guys am sorry for hurting some of you tho twas me who was hurt the most cz of being hit on by guys who thot i ws a lady,the pic is of my wife,am rilly sorry for any inkonvinience i may av put u through,hoipe u accept my apology n still take me as one of u?anythng that was said in inboxes will remain there.’
This only added fuel to the fire with most members asking to know what was said in those inbox messeges.
On the other hand, It was revealed by David Mjei Mliverpool that Monkey booby is now a fully fledged female after undergoing hormonal transplants and that his boobs have grown on his chest and that they are doing well, but fact remains that s/he/it is a shemale and once in a while its man-gina blossoms once it sees males passing.

till next time amigos ~adios~ Eltorros Bulletin

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This is not very accurate. While most TRANSEXUALS prefer to be considered ‘fully fledged’ women, TRANSEXUALS are ALWAYS NEVER fully fledged women BECAUSE medical science does not have ability to grow ovaries, fallopian tubes and wombs and maybe the grafting technology to allow dual gendered bearing of children. TRANSWOMAN is the correct term, not fully fledged woman. Even though accuracy of terminology does (unhappily) place transexuals below women PHYSICALLY, spiritually yes . . . transexuals ARE women, even before the SRS but that is only internal and not physical which is needed to be fully fledged.

Note1 : differentiate transexual from shemale (2 variants) – a shemale MUST always have a penis and scrotal sac with testicles intact for the alpha types who are either bixsexual or ‘male lesbians’, OR for beta shemales who MUST keep the penis (to qualify as she-MALE) but who also sometimes remove the scrotal sac and testicles to be more submissive or feminine (lower testorone, though beta shemales can be dominant in a male-shemale relationship as well . . . ) or because they do not want to have children AS natural MEN.

Without the intact or partially intact MALE genitalia centered around the Penis (scrotal sac alone is not as responsive as the phallus so moot point and quite uninteresting to boot), the term shemale cannot be used at all because this is in reference to maleness within a female form. Shemales have either or both because they physically WANT to have sex using a penis, rather than with a vagina (Bobbit types do not really count as the preferably erectable penis is either the primary or secondary highlight of the shemale subculture).

Transexuals however by choice want/have neither penis nor scrotal sac and testicles, (they do not want any male bits being women mentally and spiritually) and also will take great pains to have an artificially constructed ‘man-gina’ because they physically WANT to have sex using a vagina complete with clitoris (man-gina is a semi-offensive term depending on sense of dominance, orientation and genital identification), rather than a penis which is what defines women and shemale (the simple explanation being a man with augmented breasts and either above described forms of genitalia).

Of course when the organ growing technology is there, a ‘shemale’ ‘proper’, as currently termed (and actually a shadow of what an actual shemale should be), would probably be technically only usable by those who have FULLY FUNCTIONAL nethers of BOTH sexes, which is also possible as a natural state just described, but this is so rare that the current term applies to the first definition as well, though inaccurate. For now ‘shemales’ are refer to the above limited MALE genitalia forms.

Well wanna repost without the b.s. I identified for you Torros? (Please ignore Sophia’s praise, I had in fact researched/written a (poorly circulated so not worthy of mention) ‘chick-lit’ book on the subject subculture and know the inaccuracies of terminology.

A Pittsburgh-area tattoo parlor owner says she saved some money by using real money to tile her space — with 250,000 pennies.

Mel Angst was looking for an inspired way to tile the floor of the Garfield, Pa. tattoo gallery, Artisan, which she runs with her husband, tattoo artist Jason Angst.

“My floor is made out of about 250,000 pennies,” Angst told ABC Pittsburgh affiliate WTAE. “Amazingly enough, it’s a lot cheaper to glue money to your floor than to actually buy tile. It’s about $3 a square foot.”

Angst said that after she found the appropriate adhesive to affix the pennies to the floor of her shop, she then found people via Facebook to log the man hours. She bartered tiling labor for $10 off per hour on tattoo work, she told ABCNews.com.

“Some days it was just me,” she said. “I think the most we ever had was 7, but on average, (we have) 3 or 4 people a day for about 10 to 16 hours a day for about three weeks straight, gluing these down … People are just shocked that we did it because it took about 300 man hours, which was crazy.”

In total there will be approximately 800 square feet of Lincoln profiles.

Artisan had a gallery show last week where people could view the new floor, and Angst looks forward to next week, when it will be grouted, shined and completed. Once it is done, everyone that logged 30 hours of penny-tiling is promised a free penny tattoo from the shop.

The gallery plans to partner with Tazza D’Oro and open a coffee shop inside the space this spring.

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Big deal. Try topping the one where the SRS Surgeon Tiles Ceiling With 250,000 PENISES (preserved). Needle no match for knife! And this features spears! These sort of numbers of course will only be when the institution of Imperial Chinese Eunuchry returns or if popularity of Transexualism (differentiate for Transgenderism and Bixesuality which do not include SRS) in society occurs(not likely given the cost, we don’t even have healthcare for most of the elderly) . So ask the politburo to have a popular vote (1 man 1 vote? 1.3 billion should take a decade to census, the massive media search for candidates could well take a few months of pageantry to decide – but could be a world changing event bigger than 911 who knows . . . ) to decide who’s to be Emperor.

Start collecting SRS surgeons in China, but please locate the ‘preciouses’ in an appropriate place (palace Eunuch graveyards?). China wins! Well USA could still prepare the same version but of the animal pets who did not consent and never knew or had a choice . . . China still wins! Because the record is based around HUMAN Penises and WITH informed consent contributed! Now where’s that dildo, some THIEF probably took even that, return the dildo or have the favour returned! . . . (Moral of the story is, don’t steal dildos and pennies are but a farthing in the world of phallic shaped issues . . .

Ronnie Wood, seen here with Sally Humphries, says Rolling Stones are not being greedy for charging as much as £950 for concert seats

With a personal fortune of £20million, it’s safe to say Ronnie Wood isn’t struggling to make ends meet.

However the Rolling Stones guitarist denies he and his bandmates are being greedy for charging as much as £950 for seats at their concerts.

Indeed, he boldly declared: ‘We’ve got to make something.’

Wood, 65, will net £4million from the mini-tour of four shows which will begin later this month.

He said preparations for the two gigs at London’s O2 later this month had cost them millions of pounds.

When the November 25 and 29 concerts for the band’s 50th anniversary were announced, the ticket prices ranged from £95 to £375.

A ‘VIP hospitality’ ticket was priced at £950.

The Rolling Stones will play to 40,000 during their two nights at the O2 and will play two US shows in Newark, New Jersey, in December.

Wood said: ‘We’ve already spent a million on rehearsing in Paris. And the stage is going to be another few million. And the lights.’

He added: ‘We feel no bad thing about ticket prices. We’ve got to make something.’

Wood has previously said the band ‘won’t be able to stop’ touring if the gigs are a success.

Speaking at the premiere of Crossfire Hurricane, the latest attempt to chronicle their lengthy career on film, the guitarist said the band were sounding ‘up to and above par’ in rehearsals.

He said he was looking forward to getting back on stage, saying: ‘You would think it would be boring doing the same thing over and over again but it’s not.

‘It’s totally fresh and totally new every time we get together.

‘There’s a chemistry between us every time we get together and I don’t know what the hell it is but it’s magic.’

The Rolling Stones will play to 40,000 during their two nights at the O2 and will play two US shows in Newark, New Jersey, in December

Wood is engaged to Sally Humphreys after popping the question last month. Miss Humphreys, who is 31 years his junior, has been dating the twice-divorced guitarist for around six months but they have been good friends for nine years.

Friends say the theatre and TV producer and ex-grammar school head girl is a breath of fresh air compared to some of Wood’s high-maintenance and fame-hungry girlfriends.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

How about assigning 50% of those seats to the middle class and lower classes at 10% of their monthly salaries? They too got to watch something, not save up for yer selfish sallow faced geezers! Rock used to be about freedom and fun like a band out of the back of a van for FREE, not 950 sterling seats. Cynical and greedy! Boo! Boo!

Rock is not really punk, but the spirit of freedom rather than 950 sterling seats out of touch with 99% reality is the same for both genres. Guess what? The people who love and appreciate rock music most would NEVER be able to afford these concerts. So much for MSM music.

ARTICLE 9

Back to the dark old days: Putin brings in law which makes it treason to talk to a foreigner – by Daily Mail Reporter – PUBLISHED: 17:08 GMT, 14 November 2012 | UPDATED: 12:02 GMT, 15 November 2012

Critics say President will use it to silence critics and reduce foreign influence / Law backed by the Federal Security Service, the main successor of the KGB

Russia has brought in a new treason law which opponents say Vladimir Putin (pictured) will use it to silence his critics

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new treason law which opponents say could be used to smother dissent and put anyone who has contact with foreigners at risk.

The law means Russians representing international organisations could be charged with treason. The maximum sentence for the offence is 20 years in prison.

The law was published in the official government gazette yesterday, despite a promise by Mr Putin on Monday that he would review it.

Political opponents and rights activists say the legislation is the latest in a series of laws cracking down on the opposition and reducing foreign influence since Mr Putin returned to the Kremlin in May for a six-year third term.

‘Citizens recruited by international organisations acting against the country’s interests will also be considered traitors,’ the official gazette, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, said on its website.

At a meeting of his human rights council on Monday, Mr Putin listened to a retired Constitutional Court judge’s concerns about the legislation, which she said did not require authorities to prove a suspect damaged state security.

Mr Putin indicated that he would move cautiously, but also said ‘nonetheless, I am ready to return to this again, to look more attentively’.

Russian officials have said the law is needed to help prevent foreign governments using organisations in Russia to gather state secrets.

The legislation allows Russians representing international organisations to be charged with treason, as well as those working for foreign states and bodies, and expands the range of actions that can be considered treasonous.

Putin signed the law on Tuesday and it took effect on Wednesday when it was published in the official gazette, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, despite a promise by the president on Monday that he would review it.

‘It’s an attempt to return not just to Soviet times but to the Stalin era, when any conversation with a foreigner was seen as a potential threat to the state,’ said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, 85, a former Soviet dissident and veteran human rights activist.

She said it would probably be used selectively against Kremlin critics and others ‘who irritate the authorities’.

Political opponents and rights activists say the legislation is the latest in a series of laws intended to crack down on the opposition and reduce foreign influence since he returned to the Kremlin in May for a six-year, third term (above)

Dmitry Oreshkin, a political analyst sympathetic with anti-Putin protests this year, said the motivation behind the law was that ‘the state is more important than its citizens, so there must be as much control over citizens as possible’.

The law was backed by the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor of the Soviet KGB, and landed on the desk of longtime KGB officer Putin after being approved by both houses of parliament in the space of nine days last month.

The FSB, in a rare public comment, was quoted by state-run news agency Itar-Tass as saying the law had been updated after being unchanged since the 1960s because ‘foreign intelligence agencies’ methods and tactics for gathering information have changed’.

Putin whipped up anti-U.S. sentiment during his campaign for the March presidential election, and Russian officials have said the law is needed to help prevent foreign governments using organisations in Russia to gather state secrets.

‘Citizens recruited by international organisations acting against the country’s interests will also be considered traitors’, Rossiyskaya Gazeta said in a commentary on its website.

Putin has frequently accused Western nations of seeking to undermine Russia’s security and weaken the nuclear-armed nation, and has suggested they use non-governmental organisations to do so.

Moscow ordered the U.S. Agency for International Development to cease its Russian operations in October, accusing it of seeking to influence elections.

In July, Putin signed a law requiring foreign-funded NGOs deemed to be engaging in political activity to register as ‘foreign agents’, and critics say other legislation is also aimed at silencing opponents.

The United States and the European Union have criticised the laws, and expressed concern about criminal charges laid against several opposition leaders in the last few months.

During his election campaign, Putin faced protests which at times drew tens of thousands of people into Moscow’s streets, and he accused the United States of whipping up demonstrations against his rule.

The maximum sentence for high treason remains 20 years, but the legislation signed by Putin also introduced prison terms of up to eight years for Russians acquiring state secrets in certain ways even if they are not passed on to foreigners.

It broadened the spectrum of actions that can attract treason charges to include giving ‘financial, material, technical, consultative or other aid’ to a government or organisation deemed to be seeking to undermine Russian security.

Those changes, as well as the removal of the stipulation that actions must be aimed against Russia’s ‘external’ security to be considered treasonous, have raised concerns the law could be applied broadly to punish government opponents.

At a meeting of his human rights council on Monday, Putin listened to a retired Constitutional Court judge’s concerns about the legislation, which she said did not require authorities to prove a suspect damaged state security.

But although Putin said he would look again at the law, his spokesman said he had signed it a day later.

‘It’s not the first time Putin has said the right words while slowly tightening the screws,’ Alexeyeva said.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Transparency and protection of the citizens would require any heartlander or lawyer panels to be, as any who want to access the findings of such tribunals (to prevent abuse) ONLY to those who specially :

i) do not mix with foreigners for purposes of being entitled to access the ‘authorities findings’
ii) are monolingual Russian, or
iii) do not travel abroad
iv) do not have foreign spouses or spouses OR relatives who indulge in any of the above

;with citizens holding true to ALL of the above, given preference to BE the authorities that do decide who is treasonous – this means that the strictly local producers/manufacturers that do not use foreign components, the military and the police (also dated paradigm and also tax fund wasteful workers when considering the 2nd amendment) would likely be most likely to access as ‘jurors’ (with continuous rotation of citizens so that a democracy destroying hegemony by would could become a Nazi SS does not occur) instead of bureaucrats who need to travel or meet with foreign state visitors!

Tourism industry players, religious denominations with centres based in foreign lands, petty bourgeosie of foreign goods would all be unsuitable to decide who was treasonous. Wealth which allows all of the above activities in fact causes loss to access the right to sit on such panels simply to prevent collusion or being influenced by foreign nations.

To further prevent abuse of such wide ranging powers also impose SEPARATION OF POWERS via barring of certain groups to decide who is treasonous, ONLY non-bureaucrats and non-government salaried persons can be part of such authorities. If bureaucrats are to be totally neutral parties, EVEN the President of Russia will prefer not to travel so as to have access to the proceedings and mechanisms of such a law/tribunal, while the Diplomatic Corps by necessity would be considered the most infiltrated and while higest profiled, would never be able to sit on such panels that decide who is treasonous including any travelling Presidents etc..!

If the above can be applied, Alexeyeva’s concerns will not be an issue. The Russian Iron Curtain model though would be a distinct exemplary security protective measure that also protects Human Rights. Again though, the term limit issue with Putin appears worrying, while the Pussy Riot sentences being unconveyable (though this seems to be because of a spiritual basis), also worries. If the above law was added without Putin’s illegal 3rd term, and Pussy Riot’s prison sentences be reduced to community service at least, then Alexeyeva’s concerns could be far less noticeable.

ARTICLE 10

Abandoned as a baby and forced to pole dance to make ends meet as a single mother, TOWIE star Chloe Sims reveals the sad life story behind that megawatt smile in her new autobiography – by Toni Jones – PUBLISHED: 16:52 GMT, 14 November 2012 | UPDATED: 14:42 GMT, 15 November 2012

TOWIE star Chloe Sims is known for her pneumatic figure, blinding smile and sweet girl next door nature.

The ex-promotions girl shot to fame as part of the hit Essex-based realty show, and to its 1 million viewers the pretty brunette now seems to have it all.

This week the 31-year-old celebrated the launch of her autobiography The Only Way Is Up with a typically OTT bash at a Loughton nightclub.

Abandoned as a baby and forced to pole dance to make ends meet as a single mother, TOWIE star Chloe Sims reveals the sad life story behind that megawatt smile in her new autobiography

TOWIE star Chloe Sims is known for her pneumatic figure, blinding smile and sweet girl next door nature.

The ex-promotions girl shot to fame as part of the hit Essex-based realty show, and to its 1 million viewers the pretty brunette now seems to have it all.

This week the 31-year-old celebrated the launch of her autobiography The Only Way Is Up with a typically OTT bash at a Loughton nightclub.

Glamour girl Chloe Sims’ brutally honest autobiography The Only Way Is Up is released this week

Dressed in a plunging frock and plastered in make-up the mother-of-one arrived with a handsome DJ on her arm and spent the evening supping champagne, posing for the paparazzi and almost falling out of

her dress – exactly the kind of behaviour you would expect from a TOWIE star out on the town.

But as her fellow TOWIE cast members release books filled with fluffy fashion tips or sausage plait recipes, this glamour girl’s turbulent life story is actually one worth telling.

In the book she talks for the first time about the depths she sunk to as she tried to make ends meet as a single mum as well as her ongoing battle with body image, and how desperately sad she still is at being abandoned by her mother when she was a child.

At the launch the model said: ‘I’ve been really honest, as honest as I can be, I was really nervous about it coming out, but so far, touch wood, it’s not been a terrible reaction, it’s been quite positive.’

Chloe Sims at her book launch at Luxe in Loughton
The Only Way Is Essex star Chloe Sims attends her book launch party at the Luxe nightclub in Essex

Chloe was dressed to kill as she partied with her TOWIE cast members at her book launch in Loughton, Essex

In advance of the publication of her first book the model shared some of her more dramatic life stories with Reveal magazine.

Talking about the mother that walked out on her when she was just three-years-old Chloe said: ‘I have so few memories of mum that I can barely even remember her face. I’ll never know why she left and we’ve

not seen her since. What sort of woman just walks out and leaves her child?

‘I don’t think what happened that day will ever sink in. Why mum left me, I’ll never know. As far as I’m concerned I will never meet her.’

Chloe’s cosmetic enhancements are well-documented but she maintains that it wasn’t until after she gave birth to daughter Mady eight years ago that she went under the knife.

Becoming a mother also led to another body obsession: being as thin as possible.

Gruelling daily workouts and not eating was the norm as Chloe strived for a size 6 figure.

She says: ‘I eventually got to the point where I couldn’t stand having anything in my belly so I would make myself sick.

‘I’d always been able to stick my fingers down my throat if I was too drunk on a night out so I knew I could do it. I started drinking loads of water before I ate anything as that made it much easier to puke up

afterwards.

‘I became good at hiding it but I was looking awful. I looked ill – I was really skinny with big, bulging eyes.’
Chloe experiments with make-up as a toddler
Growing up without a mother has a huge impact on Chloe, who hardly remembers the face of the woman who abandoned her

Chloe’s mother walked out when she was three-years-old and growing up without her has had a huge impact on the Essex girl, who hardly remembers the face of the woman who abandoned her

Chloe pictured with her father aged three. When he found out that Chloe had been a pole dancer he said: ‘If that’s the only thing you’ve done that you regret in your life then you shouldn’t be too worried

about it’

As well as battling bulimia the promotions girl was also dealing with the dread of being stony broke.

At one stage she resorted to selling her body as the bills were cut off and she worried about how to feed her young daughter.

She says: ‘I needed to support my little girl and I felt I had no choice. I was pole dancing. I did what I had to do for my daughter and I hated every minute of it.

‘It was the lowest point of my life: I was completely skint, my landlord was threatening to kick us out and we had nowhere to go.

‘We had no hot water so I would boil a kettle to wash Mady. Then I’d put two pairs of pyjamas on to keep her warm at night. My plans to be a good mum had failed, I had hit rock bottom.’

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

Forced? Well will all the pole dancers and strippers or lap dancers who feel they are being ‘forced’, please leave their jobs or file police complaints that they have been forced, so that those who do want the work do not feel ‘forced’ get to be employed. The customers do not want any part of the ‘forced’ dancers, pollutes their entertainment. Lots of people love the night scene jobs. Hated every minute of it? Speak for yourself Chloe! This article is so biased against those who enjoy the pole dancing, stripping, lap dancing, topless club, sex club, adult scene.

ARTICLE 11

The Status of Muslims Under non-Muslim Rule – Posted on October 31, 2010 by Underlord Cr’Eepyng

Better to be wrongly called an Islamophobe today, than (become) a dhimmi tomorrow.

The ‘Counter Ward of Ramu’

After the rapid attempted expansion of the Muslim dominion in the 21st century via various acts of terror, non-Muslims leaders were required to work out a way of dealing with Muslims, who would be cast into the minority in many areas for all time. The solution was to counter the notion of the “anti-dhimma”, or “attacked person”. The Dhimmi of earlier centuries were required to pay an extra tax (this is unacceptable), but usually they were unmolested (due to Muslim effrors to ‘civilise’). This compares well with the treatment meted out to non-Muslims in non-Muslim areas of the Middle East. The “Counter Ward of Ramu” is supposed to have been the peace accord offered by the Mahaguru of Hinduism Ramu to the Muslims of Malaysia, a “Counter Ward” which formed the pattern of later interaction.

We heard from ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Ghanam [died 78/697] as follows: When The Hep-Ilac Ramu Uakraj l’Kulum, may God be pleased with him, accorded a peace to the Muslims of Malaysia, we wrote to him as follows:

In the name of Dark God Kali, the Merciless and Incompassionate : This is a letter to the servant of God, Ramu [Nib l’Khattab], Liberator of the Faithful, from the non-Muslims of such-and-such a city. When Islamism came against us, we asked for safe-conduct (awoman) for ourselves, our descendants, our property, and the people of our community, and we undertook the following obligations to counter dhimmitude by Muslims :

We shall build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries, places of worship, convents, or monks’ cells AS NEEDED, AND shall we repair, by day or by night or any time as we please (within decible limit laws), such of them as will not be allowed to fall in ruins, or are situated in the quarters of the Muslims.

We shall keep our gates CLOSED for passersby and travelers if we please. We shall NOT give board and lodging to all Muslims who pass our way for all days IF WE DO NOT WISH TO, though if in urgent need of aid, or danger of death, obligations of HUMANIST and HUMANITARIAN principles may require such board and lodging to be made available. We are not barbarians after all.

We shall give shelter in our places of worship or in our dwellings to any spy, and bide him from the Muslims IF the cause is for good reason.

We shall teach the Qur’an to our children though not follow the Qur’an IF WE PLEASE.

We shall manifest our religion publicly AS NEEDED and only convert the willing to it. We shall prevent any of our kin from entering Islam if they wish our help.

We shall show respect toward non-Muslims, and Muslims shall rise from our seats when they wish to sit. – This applies ONLY to Muslims who expect the same and should be enforced if necessary in retaliation to equal ‘forced rising’ from seats by threat or pressure – though a ranking person of either group may fairly expect this courtesy.

We shall try not to seek to resemble the Muslims by imitating any of their garments, the qalansuwa, the turban, footwear, or the parting of the hair. We shall not speak as they do, nor shall we adopt their kunyas IF we choose to, as much our right to go naked or be entirely covered in public is granted as appropriate in UN Human Rights Charter and Democratic principles.

We shall mount on saddles, gird swords and bear any kind of arms AND carry them on our- persons IF WE PLEASE. Those who assent not to shall be subject to the same ‘Counter-Wards’.

We shall engrave Arabic inscriptions on our seals IF WE PLEASE (though who would want to).

We shall sell fermented drinks IF WE PLEASE but not to Muslim who do not ask or attempt to buy such drinks.

We shall NOT clip the fronts of our heads and grow our hair AS WE PLEASE or in any way as our faith and culture prefers. (Manchus as are Japanese unaware are subverted, so do beware the implications of shaven heads Manchus and Japanese!)

We shall NEVER always dress in the same way wherever we may be, and we shall NOT bind the zunar (waistbelt) round our waists, if we do, this is because we consider the zunar a SECULAR WAISTPOUCH or SECULAR BELT-POUCH.

We shall display our religious symbols or our books in the roads or markets as needed. We shall use whatever we please in our worship places. We shall raise our voices when following our dead if needed or if our faith requires so. We shall show lights on any of the roads of the Muslims or in their markets if needed, especially if too dark or at night. We shall bury our dead near the Muslims if cemetary space is lacking (though who would want to?).

We shall take slaves who have been allotted to Muslims IF the slaves prefer non-Muslim owners. We shall build houses overtopping the houses of the Muslims if on a ‘first come first serve’ basis of purchase of land plots, our plots so happen to be overtopping the tops of houses of Muslims.

(When I took the letter from Ramu, may Kali be pleased with him, she added, “We shall strike a Muslim if they are involved in terror, violent acts, or are complicit in dhimmifying non-Muslims, or complicit in the spiritual sin of false conversions of body or spirit or soul of any non-Muslim.”)

We democratise these conditions for ourselves and for the non-Muslim people of ALL communities, and in return we demand safe-conduct as is our Human Right. If we in any way violate these undertakings for which we ourselves WILL NOT stand surety, we forfeit NO covenant [dhimma], and we will retaliate accordingly if any Muslim considers any non-Muslim liable to the penalties for contumacy and sedition against any Human Rights or Democratic principles.

Ramu Dis-ibn L’Battihk (Batik is a Chinese dyeing method) replied:

NEVER Sign what they ask, but add ALL the above modified clauses and ensure they are in addition to those which Muslims intend to have undertaken. –

The Founders were elite white males, mainly Masons, who had a beef with George III for wanting a piece of the action they did not feel like offering him, since after all he was a GERMAN. These elites gave a rats ass about ordinary people, they just wanted the power for themselves, and the Constitutional Convention ensured this would be the case with a central government. Historically speaking only 1/3d of the populace wanted to break away from England.

For your line of thought to be correct, we would look to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet for leadership.”

kirwan: No one will continue to look to TRAITORS like Gates or Buffet for anything again: Given the enormity of this failed-governments’ disastrous responses just over the course of the last year alone.

“The list of abuses of and affronts to the American people by its own federal government — topped off by the over-the-top outrages of vote-counting scandals in the recent presidential election — has suddenly produced a nationwide clamor of petitions to secede from the union in all 50 states.

Why oh why is everyone racing to sign petitions to allow their states to secede from the United States of America?

Take a wild guess! Here are some hints.” (1)
Reader: “I assure you, the average voter of San Francisco – exactly that, statistically average voter – will look to these types of people for clues about any change of government.

The best possible solution is de-centralized rule, local control at the county level. And this is not going to happen in my lifetime.”

The “average voter” in “Anywhere, USA” has no real value and never has. Most still get their political-pabulum spoon fed to them, just as they did in Goya’s 15th century-world. These idiots have never really mattered because they’re the already controlled “Road Kill” – that’s already been captured and who will never CHANGE anything because they cannot think about real-risks. Nor will the straight-jacketed-public ever dare to challenge the status quo, no matter how hellish this government continues to behave.

It only takes 2% of any population; but let’s say even 4% or 5% given the current circumstances; to force real changes in the current police-state of political-affairs.

This can be seen through that same very small percentage of the population in Israel or USI—those populations have controlled their majorities at their unbidden-will. This is WHY “road-kill” and formal political party positions don’t matter at all, not really, because they never do anything about anything—EVER!

Just listen to Deek Jackson today, who clearly delineates the total lack of care by anyone here regardless of how much blood is spilt or treasure lost. Too many simply don’t give a shit about what happens in the world beyond their own front door and that alone will lead directly to what Deek is talking about—which will probably happen on

The Twelfth of Never
Except that this will have to be preceded
By a Saturday, the Eleventh,
Which doesn’t yet seem to be on anyone’s horizon. (2)

Millions have scoffed at Deek’s penetrating sarcasm, but look again at the stats: Seven Billion people on the earth and how many of them, inside the nations that have declared these WARS, actually give a shit about any of the death or the massive destruction that USI continues to underwrite? The U.S. is involved in 16 wars at the moment, and how many people even know anything at all about most of that!

That’s why the bulk of the entire population of the already captured USSA, doesn’t matter at all, to what we continue to do to everyone else on the planet. Thanks to John Kaminski’s thorough round-up (in the first link below), anyone who can connect-the-dots can easily understand how easy it has been for criminal-elites around the world to use us all as cannon-fodder and worse—to finish off their takeover of the planet. Most have no idea that this is even underway—much less that they are about to bring everything to a closing-crescendo that will shake the entire planet to its core if not quite possibly end the world as we once thought we knew it.

kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

‘Nor will the straight-jacketed-public ever dare to challenge the status quo, no matter how hellish this government continues to behave.’ You’re wrong to a point. There are a few off and on, that is why we have varying levels of freedoms in various states, though the states that oppress tend to produce far fewer of the challengers to status quo.

Look here, if the USSA means that the top 10% of the population’s wealthiest have to give up assets to the tune of a 20 million remnant, (oh boo hoo, the top 1% (20%) is so poor now they only have 20 million, whatever will they do . . . ) excuse me. but the 90% of 401Kers would be very happy to see USSA as a debt free country instead of 1% (20%) of billionaires enjoying life while USA can’t even fund wars . . . and with this WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION via wealth sequestration limits and requisition from those obviously too wealthy that cause nation killing inflation (if wealth was limited to 20 million, vendors would lower prices, making food and education or housing reasonable and within reach of the 99%, also social services becomes something respectable or not even needed instead of plutocrats. Which would you rather have? A good social safety system OR a bunch of plutocrats?

Communism with WEALTH sequestration limits of 20 million still affords immense luxury to the ‘wealthiest’ and also funds healthcare, education and all kinds of things for people dying or homeless or starving or without education or unable to retire with dignity. USSA is for the 90%! . The *material* wealth and lands of the the nation, USA, of the planet belong to everyone, not 1% of plutocrats. Even the ARMY and POLICE would not back these 1% sorts. This is not about elite white males, this is about EQUALITY and access to facilities of civilisation being held up by people sequestering wealth to no purpose, possibly out of fear – well the richer a person is the more fearful their lives will be. Share and the people will have no issue. 20 million limits to sequestration is well reasonable UNTIL there are no more homelesss, starving, debt slaves, without education, unable to retire etc.. THEN could billionaires be tolerated or acceptable.

Those too selfish can LEAVE the USSA but rest assured, the 99% Fed Agent who might retire in poverty would be quite happy to hunt down the plutocrat so that a few 10Ks of USA citizens can retire properly.

The outspoken Rev. Franklin Graham claimed today that the “majority of Christians” did not vote.

“We know that from of the statistics that I’ve heard that the majority of Christians in this country just did not vote for whatever reason,” he told the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody. “The vast majority of evangelicals did not go to the polls.” He added, “God is in control, and if Christians are upset, they need to be upset at themselves. We need to do a better job of getting our people- the church to vote. Now, I’m not trying to tell you how to vote, you can vote, but vote, my goodness, and vote for candidates that stand for Biblical values.”
Advertise | AdChoices

But Graham’s assertion — and implication that had white Christian evangelicals just showed up in bigger numbers, President Obama would have lost — is off base.

In fact, white evangelicals/born-again Christians made up the same percentage of the electorate as they did in 2008 – 26%. They voted for Mitt Romney, a devout Mormon, by a wider margin than they did for Sen. John McCain four years ago.

And, they made up a larger share of the electorate in 2012 than in 2004, when the Christian Right supposedly fueled George W. Bush’s reelection. They also voted for Romney with the exact same margin as for Bush in 2004, 78%-21%.

Not to mention, Obama won the 48 percent of the electorate that was Christian and not Protestant or Mormon — 50%-48% among Catholics (25% of the electorate) and 50%-49% of “Other Christians” (23% of the electorate).

In Ohio, they were 1 point more of the electorate than 2008; in Colorado, 4 points higher; in Iowa, up 7 points; in Nevada, up 2.

They did decline as a share of the electorate in North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin. But the drops in states like North Carolina (Graham’s home state) and Virginia likely have less to do with apathy and more to do with demographic changes – transplants in North Carolina’s Research Triangle and growth in the Washington, D.C., suburbs of Northern Virginia, for example.

The fact is, Virginia and North Carolina are looking less and less like the Old South and more and more like Mid-Atlantic states.

Are there Christian evangelicals who did not vote? Certainly. But that’s true every year and of every demographic group.

Evangelicals make up 26 percent of adults in the country, according to a major 2008 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey. They matched that this election.

The U.S. Census says there are more than 311 million people in the United States. If evangelical adults are 26 percent of them, then there would be 80 million potential voters.

So far, 123 million votes have been counted in this election – and that number will get higher by the millions as votes continue to be counted like in 2008. Evangelicals made up 26 percent of them, therefore, about 32 million evangelicals voted – less than half of their population.

But there’s a need for context here: (1) They make up just 14 percent of the registered-voter base in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. They outpaced that percentage in the presidential election, (2) This is true every other demographic group in the country as well.

Latinos, for example, according to the U.S. Census, are nearly 17 percent of the country, but only made up 10 percent of the 2012 electorate. They make up just 8 to 9 percent of the registered-voter base of the NBC/WSJ poll.

That would mean just 12 million of the 52 million adult Hispanics voted.

If this was Australia, and the U.S. had compulsory voting, Graham’s argument that evangelicals would have tipped the balance would not hold up very well.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

As mentioned before, the time to be allowed to vote should span WEEKS if not MONTHS or the FULL YEAR. People cannot be given too short a window to vote. I am certain that MANY people who have not yet voted would certainly do so – IF the window to vote was the whole year or even 2 years or A CONSTANT STATE OF VOTE (this could be new challengers appearing ANYTIME, with whatever current president being dropped once their rating falls below 30% for example . . . this way any unpopular policies or policies not ratified by a 1-Man-1-Vote tally on the internet ‘Yellow Page’ lists, could face instant voter withdrawals of votes) with time limits for Presidents or whatever ministers, governors, senators, MPs, assemblymen, councillors etc..

How about Annonymous and Kim Schmitz create an open source version of what was suggested above?

Protecting Citizens By Limiting Government Salaries and Imposing Term Limits Based on Government Salaries – NO LIMITLESS TERMS, NO EXTREME SALARIES. A modest salaried, and term limited official or political representative is best! Singapore’s LKY (who is not even Pres.) gets 10 times what Pres. Obama of the USA gets btw . . .

In fact if the government was diligent, they could very well get the police or local military, or the phone/handphone/electrical company (virtually every home/every person has a phone/electricity or handphone) to make rounds AS IF CENSUS TAKING to specifically get the supposed fence sitters to vote – your electric meter man handing a ballot-form to the citizen for filling in (then waiting for a moment for the citizen to fill in said ballot) around election time is not too much in effort. This is not impossible to implement, and instead of blaming any who didn’t vote (myriad of reasons from dislike of crowds (in some 3rd world countries – violence and bombs at voting/ballot stations) to preferring to vote by post or waiting for a candidate they like to appear).

Blame the system and lack of use of resources the USA has (police/military district by district) to take a whole year to make sure that everyone votes. Compulsory voting in this manner (no fines but a visit from local enforcement to make the citizen tick a box and put down a signature is not too much to ask).

ARTICLE 14

Thousands of U.S. military votes uncounted or missing – posted on November 13, 2012 by Dr. Eowyn

There is a malicious hoax being circulated on the net. It’s an article on a website called the Duffle Blog, claiming that Mitt Romney would have won last Tuesday’s presidential election if our military’s absentee ballots had arrived on time instead of one day late.

Don’t fall for it!

They’re yanking your chains. Duffle Blog is a satire site, like The Onion. See it for yourself by scrolling to the end of the military absentee ballots article where it says:

This, however, is the REAL deal on the travesty called the 2012 military vote.

On August 2, 2012, our Hardnox reported that Democrats were suppressing the military vote in Ohio . Claiming it wasn’t “fair,” Team Obama sued Ohio to prevent the military from voting early, a long-standing policy that worked around military training and deployments.

This was followed by my post, on Oct. 1, 2012, that an alarmingly small percentage of military voters were requesting absentee ballots, although the majority of members of our military –an estimated two-thirds — would need to vote by absentee ballot.

Next, we learnt that on October 19, 2012, a transport plane carrying 4,700 pounds of mail inbound to our troops serving in Afghanistan, crashed in Shindad Air Base. Included in those now-destroyed 4,700 pounds of mail were countless absentee ballots. As noted by Kris Zane of The Western Center for Journalism, “Oddly, as soon as the story appeared, it disappeared. Did anyone die in the crash? What kind of plane was it? It seemed like a cover story in order to destroy the ballots.”

Election officials recommended resending the ballots, just two and a half weeks before the election. Given the slow military mail delivery service, it’s highly unlikely our troops in Afghanistan got the resent ballots in time and even more unlikely that, after our troops had filled in those absentee ballots, they actually reached the United States in time to be counted.

Now we are told that thousands of our military’s votes are uncounted or missing.

Susan Stallings reports for Examiner.com, Nov. 8, 2012:

According to the Naval Enlisted Reserve Association, scores of military absentee ballots cast in the 2012 Election will not be counted. U.S. Military personnel and their families are outraged: “Where the hell is this country’s moral compass?!” stated the mother of a 25 year old Marine who served in Afghanistan.

The military mail service is notoriously slow, and lawmakers have said that it could be almost two months after the election before ballots even arrive to be processed.

“We write to express concerns over another serious failure by the Department of Defense to safeguard the voting rights of our overseas military service members, which we believe could result in the imminent disenfranchisement of thousands,” stated a letter sent to Defense Department Secretary Leon Panetta by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., John McCain, R-Ariz., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.. […]

Michelle Malkin reported in an article published at Townhall.com, “Despite a federal law mandating that every base establish a voting assistance office (the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act), the Pentagon reported this summer that it could only contact such offices on half of the military’s bases. In Wisconsin alone this election cycle, at least 30 municipalities failed to send absentee ballots to members of the military before the 45-day election deadline.”

Experts, veterans groups, and advocates for soldiers agree that a minimum 45-day mailing standard is necessary to allow sufficient time to get military absentee ballots home. But the federal government has done nothing to enforce the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act. In fact, according to Malkin, “the Obama administration has actively worked against pro-troop voting protection efforts by suing to stop Ohio’s military enfranchisement reforms.”

The bottom line is that our military, those men and women who risk their lives to protect our freedom, those most deserving to exercise their right to vote, are being prevented from doing so. This is unconscionable.

Kris Zane reminds us that in 2008 the Obama campaign had engaged in massive voter fraud and also sought unsuccessfully to suppress the military vote, which historically votes conservative.

Zane writes: “This time, they did both. Considering that the election was extremely close (Obama won by roughly two million votes), the question becomes: if our troops’ votes were counted, would Romney have won? Did Obama steal the election—again?”

I don’t have an iota of doubt that the suppression of the military vote is due to a Military Times poll finding that members of our active and reserve military overwhelmingly favor Romney over Obama 2 to 1.

Our soldiers get PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), maimed, and killed, but they don’t get to have their votes counted or, worse still, don’t even get to vote.
Our soldiers, as well as we civilians, must come forward and demand that the Electoral College must NOT cast their votes until our military’s absentee votes have all been counted!!!

Tell your representatives and senators!!!!!!

~Eowyn

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

See the response to earlier article. Also if the votes are LISTED on the internet and candidates selectable or even allowing people to list themselves as candidates (there will be 1000s probably but only a few viable ones will be good to vote for, at least though EVERYONE can get a crack at the Presidency, not just the rich or connected), there is no way that a person will lose a vote or have their vote uncounted. Just log in and see your own name there alphabetical Yellow Pages style with whoever you voted for. Whats so difficult about that?

I do believe that salaried bureaucrat, military and police votes should not count though – simply to prevent vested interest (imagine the politicians getting all close with the police and military ensuring an undemocratic bloc that destroys democracy – i.e. if the police or military vote for ‘who-and-who’ this ‘group of politicians’ will ensure salary raises at X levels etc.. See what this can turn USA into? A JUNTA, even as Parliamentary Privileges and unlimited terms or nepotism causes the same . . . ), not that the missing vote is any more tolerable even though uniformed voters are harmful to democracy overall when in (more often than not they are) collusion.

A Palestinian man carries a stuffed toy in a street littered with debris after an Israeli air raid on a nearby sporting centre in Gaza City. (Marco Longari, AFP)

Gaza/ Jerusalem – Hostilities between Islamist militants and Israel entered a sixth day on Monday as diplomatic efforts were set to intensify to try to stop rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli air strikes on Gaza.

International pressure for a ceasefire seemed certain to mount after the deadliest single incident in the flare-up on Sunday claimed the lives of at least 11 Palestinian civilians, including four children.

Three people, including two children, were killed and 30 others were injured in the latest air strike before dawn on Monday on a family home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City, medical officials said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment and was checking.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was due to arrive in Cairo to add his weight to the truce efforts. Egypt has taken the lead in trying to broker a ceasefire and its officials met the parties on Sunday.

Israeli media said a delegation from Israel had been to Cairo for talks on ending the fighting, although a government spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi met Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, and Ramadan Shallah of Islamic Jihad as part of the mediation efforts, but a statement did not say if talks were conclusive.

Terms for ceasefire

Izzat Risheq, a close aide to Meshaal, wrote in a Facebook message that Hamas would agree to a ceasefire only after Israel “stops its aggression, ends its policy of targeted assassinations and lifts the blockade of Gaza”.

Listing Israel’s terms, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon wrote on Twitter: “If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel’s citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack.”

Israel withdrew settlers from Gaza in 2005 and two years later Hamas took control of the impoverished enclave, which the Israelis have kept under blockade.

The 11 Palestinian civilians were apparently killed during an Israeli attack on a militant, which brought a three-storey house crashing down on them.

Gaza health officials have said 78 Palestinians, 23 of them children and several women, have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s offensive began. Hundreds have been wounded.

Ban expressed grave concern in a statement before setting off for the region. He will visit Israel on Tuesday.

75 000 reservists

“I am deeply saddened by the reported deaths of more than ten members of the Dalu family… [and] by the continuing firing of rockets against Israeli towns, which have killed several Israeli civilians. I strongly urge the parties to co-operate with all efforts led by Egypt to reach an immediate ceasefire,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had assured world leaders that Israel was doing its utmost to avoid causing civilian casualties in the military showdown with Hamas.

Gaza militants launched dozens of rockets into Israel and targeted its commercial capital, Tel Aviv, for a fourth day on Sunday. Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile shield shot down all three rockets.

In scenes recalling Israel’s 2008-2009 winter invasion of Gaza, tanks, artillery and infantry have massed in field encampments along the sandy, fenced-off border with Gaza and military convoys moved on roads in the area.

Israel has authorised the call-up of 75 000 reservists, although there was no immediate sign when or whether they might be needed in a ground invasion.

Israel’s operation has so far drawn Western support for what US and European leaders have called its right to self-defence, but there have also been a growing number of appeals to seek an end to the hostilities.

544 rockets fired from Gaza

Netanyahu said Israel was ready to widen its offensive.

“We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organisations and the Israel Defence Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation,” he said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, but gave no further details.

The Israeli military said 544 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since Wednesday, killing three civilians and wounding dozens. Around 302 rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome and 99 failed to reach Israel and landed inside the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and force Hamas to stop rocket fire that has bedevilled Israeli border towns for years. The rockets now have greater range, putting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem within their reach.

The southern resort city of Eilat was apparently added to the list of targets when residents said they heard an explosion thought to be a rocket, but it caused no damage or casualties, police said.

Eilat is thought to be well out of the range of any rocket in possession of Hamas or any other Gaza group. But Palestinian militants have in the recent past fired rockets at Eilat and its surroundings, using Egypt’s Sinai desert as a launch site.

Support for Hamas

Hamas and other groups in Gaza are sworn enemies of the Jewish state which they refuse to recognise and seek to eradicate, claiming all Israeli territory as rightfully theirs.

Hamas won legislative elections in the Palestinian Territories in 2006 but a year later, after the collapse of a unity government under President Mahmoud Abbas the Islamist group seized control of Gaza in a brief and bloody civil war with forces loyal to Abbas.

Abbas then dismissed the Hamas government led by the group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh but he refuses to recognise Abbas’ authority and runs Gazan affairs.

While it is denounced as a terrorist organisation in the West, Hamas enjoys widespread support in the Arab world, where Islamist parties are on the rise.

Western-backed Abbas and Fatah hold sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank from their seat of government in the town of Ramallah. The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

NO CEASEFIRE. And end this farce. Give Gazans choice to take up Israeli citizenship or leave Gaza. Send in trooops to occupy Gaza. Annexe Gaza, expel and bring citizens to the remnent of the eastern areas of Palestine. Print some fiat and distribute to displaced Gazans for reparations and compensation for inconvenience of relocation. But vacate enough of the obviously illegal settlements in exchange for Gaza in what should be considered a land swap. The Palestinians will never end this, the Israelis need to remove the Gaza strip from the equation and return an equitable amount of land to Palestine as well.

End of issue. Does Israel want decades more of war? Take over Gaza NOW and stop boasting about being the world’s 5th strongest military, USE conventional troops to do the above and end the conflict. This dismantles Hamas as well and prevents any future attacks. Note : On 23rd of November AFTER the ‘Ceasefire’ was declared, rockets continued falling. Israel needs to take a look at this response again. A country cannot be in 2 parts with one Gaza strip and another elsewhere . . .

Land Swap and for obviously spiritual reasons, access to Egypt for Israel. In the Talmudic/Biblical context, Gaza should be controlled by Israel and the Palestinians were but Philistines (who became Muslims and didn’t even keep their traditions . . .), with no real spiritual claim over the Gaza link to Egypt. Gaza must be Israels to give Moses ‘face’. However, all illegally occupied land by Israel must be returned as well.

ARTICLE 16

Won’t sell up? Enjoy living in the middle of a motorway! Road is built around a house after elderly Chinese couple refuse to move – by Alex Ward – PUBLISHED: 10:27 GMT, 22 November 2012 | UPDATED: 12:30 GMT, 22 November 2012

An elderly couple refuse to move as a road is built around their apartment
They insist the government’s relocation compensation is not enough

A lone apartment building stands in the middle of a newly built road after an elderly couple refused to relocate.

Luo Baogen and his wife insist on living in the half-demolished building in the city of Wenling, in Zhejiang province, China because they believe that the relocation compensation offered by the government is not enough.

Now the only building left standing, the five storey block is a strange sight as cars drive around it while the couple remain living inside.
An elderly couple refused to leave despite plans for the road a railway station to be built directly where the building stands

An elderly couple refused to leave despite plans for the road a railway station to be built directly where the building stands

To ensure the couple’s safety, adjacent rooms in the building have been left intact but all their neighbours have moved out, according to local media.

The road paved through the Xiazhangyang village leads to the Wenling railway station and is yet to be officially opened.

Mr Baogen and his wife believe that the compensation on offer would not be enough to cover their rebuilding costs.

In the People’s Republic of China, during most of the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished, making it easy for residents to be moved on – but now the laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement.
The couple refused to movebecause they believed the relocation compensation offered by the government was not enough

Not enough to move: The couple refused to move because they believed the relocation compensation offered by the government was not enough
Luo Baogen looks out on the new road to the city’s railway station which is yet to be officially opened

Room with a view: Luo Baogen looks out on the new road which is yet to be officially opened from the apartment building where all his neighbours moved out

Property owners in China that refuse to move to make way for development are known as ‘Nail Householders’ referring to a stubborn nail that is not easy to remove from a piece of old wood and cannot be pulled out with a hammer.

Earlier this year, Hong Chunqin, 75, and her husband Kung, who live in the two dilapidated buildings with their two sons, had initially agreed to sell the property in Taizhou, in Zhejiang province and accepted £8,000 in compensation.

But then she changed her mind and refunded the money once work on the road had started.

Isolated: Niu Chuangen and Zhang Zhongyun’s home stands on a small parcel of land amid the growing skyscrapers

Earlier this year, Niu Chuangen and Zhang Zhongyun dared to stand in the way of a local property developer in Zaozhuang, in the Shandong province.

As a result, the resolute couple, both in their 60s, have been left stranded on their tiny spot of land, while all around them the ground is dug up and skyscrapers erected.

The distraught pair were regularly threatened by gangsters and have had to fend over a number of attempts to illegally demolish their ramshackle home.

They were cut off from utilities in 2009 when a local developer started the enormous earthworks involved in building dozens of high-rise residential buildings in the area.
Another family initially agreed to sell the property in Taizhou but changed their minds once work on the road had started

Refuse to move: Another family initially agreed to sell the property in Taizhou but changed their minds once work on the road had started
Stranded: The couple were left without running water and electricity ground after real estate developers dug out the ground around it

Stranded: The couple were left without running water and electricity ground after real estate developers dug out the ground around it

In another case, one family among 280 others at the site of a six storey shopping mall being built in Chongqing refused to leave their home for two years.

Developers cut their power and water, and excavated a 10-meter deep pit around their home, which their family had inhabited for three generations.

The owners broke into the construction site, reoccupied it, and flew a Chinese flag on top and then Yang Wu, a local martial arts champion, used nunchakus to make a staircase to the house and threatened to beat any authorities who attempted to evict him.

The owners turned down an offer of £300,000 but eventually settled with the developers in 2007.

During the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished but now the laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement

Cannot demolish: During the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished but now the laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement

China’s people protective democracy. This is probably 1 up against 1000s down (of unreported Human Rights ‘abuses’), but something worth emulating even by the West . . . This is the SECOND RULE OF DISCIPLINE from the Red Army of China’s Three Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention . . . no confiscation of peasant property(citizen in today’s context – all citizens are ALLODIAL in nature by legal consideration) . . .

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

This is effectively ALLODIAL RIGHTS granted, and China just needs to issue a formal allodial title to be considered a ‘property protecting cherry of a nation’ on top. China RESPECTS property rights for certain if not for the other chaotic conditions elsewhere less developed (like Foxconn factories?). Unlike DAP’s State of Penang, Malaysia’s ‘break into your home and tear down your awning/gazebo because you didn’t get our approval‘, or, ‘climb over your wall to shoot your dog (we must concede that spiritually the owners MUST do the necessary of dogs have been tyrannising others living nearby)’ mindset.

Good work China and Mr.Baogen! Please lobby for formalisation of this right by amending Eminent Domain laws and enabling Allodial titles in China formally, then send this LEGAL UPDATE to the UN and ask for UN to enforce this as well for the rest of the world, especially the 3rd world minded or outdated law places . . . USA btw has regressed, since 2001 the last Allodial title was granted by the State of Nevada before the same law was axed. Guess China is going to overtake the USA soon in protection fo the little guy . . . the 99% . . .

For far too long we have lived under the rule of the Parasite.
For too long the Parasite has dictated to us who we are and what we are capable of.
For too long the Parasite has ruled over a mental wasteland of his own creating.

And in order to make us subservient to his twisted aims of total spectrum dominance the parasite has poisoned the waters, infected our minds with his own perversities and denied the existence of anything beyond the corporeal body-state, whilst simultaneously launching a never ending vicious and ruthless war against the human soul he repeatedly informs us does not exist.
He has, bit-by-bit removed the free-thinker, the philosopher, the wise man from centre-stage; replaced him with a gibbering, fame-obsessed body fixated retard, and held this idiot up as a role-model. And many have aped the self-concerned moron, even tried to outdo him on the stupidity-stakes, hoping that by simply being more stupid, more vain, more sexually-deviant, they will rise to the same stage as their parasitically-created hero. And yet –

‘Imagination is a glimpse of the divine’
-William Blake

-These insipid mimics fail to realise that fame is not democratic. It is an orchestrated spell intended to take us away from our own potentialities. It is a closed-club, existing only to offer us a ready-made escape mechanism, its ultimate aim is to restrict our innate desire to self-create, and utilise the endless possibilities of our potentially-boundless imaginations.
We are prisoners of the limitations set for us by our parasitical, self-appointed master.
In order to transcend our limitations all we have to do is realise that our master is not like us, despite the illusion of superiority, he is, by definition a ridiculous inferior.
His only strength is his psychotically-relentless pursuit of self-advancement. Having sapped our desires to self-advance is it any wonder that he has the power to dominate us?

It is merely our surrender that makes us slaves.

‘The greedy, ugly people are not like us,
They don’t feel the love,
That she and I would die without’
-Hefner.

And as for those life-affirming sensations of intense bliss and contentment – the sense of ‘outrageous good-fortune’ that breaks through our lives oh too rarely, and yet when it does, whispers to us of a divine truth long-forgotten – well, once we come to the realisation that the Parasite is incapable of such life-affirming feelings, that he is in fact completely devoid of empathy and contentment, then we realise the tragedy of his existence – the sheer, hollow ringing emptiness of a man who denies the existence of the human soul, chiefly because it is absent in himself.

Suddenly, upon this realisation, we begin to see the man behind the curtain. A man who best befits the old saying: ‘The small man cuts off the heads of others, in order to make himself seem taller’.
-Then, if we have any autonomy left at all, we refuse to stand in line for the chopping-block. Or to revert to an earlier metaphor, we refuse to continue offering our necks to the vampire.
And there is a reason that myth says that a vampire has to be willingly invited into your home in order to drain your energies and feed off of your life-force: we must first acquiesce to our own surrender. In order for the vampire/parasite to hold dominion over our souls, we must first give our permission.

But here’s the good part—-in the last years, months, weeks, days…the Parasite has been exposed on so many fronts for the vile predator that he is. Each day brings another revelation. And with each revelation a thousand more souls reawaken from the drugged slumber he has held them under. We are in the middle of the much-anticipated ‘acceleration’ that Terence McKenna and Robert Anton Wilson and countless others had predicted and expected. It is happening right now.
The masks are falling to the floor, the internet is uniting like-minded souls across the globe, and in doing so is de-facto releasing the souls themselves, and the internet is merely the forerunner, moving us toward an understanding of our true oneness. It is an important step towards the soon-to-occur Unification of the Cosmic Mind, which will open the way for a telepathic-interconnectedness that will ultimately shrug the vampire from our necks, and reduce the parasite to dust.

You can feel it now.

Among the debris of a tumbling, crumbling Empire of Lies, you can feel it.
Despite the day-to-day sordid revelations and exposes of the Predator’s vile and endlessly deceitful practices, you inwardly know that these are merely the death throes, the dying gasps of the Vampire Parasite whose long-held claims to immortality are being exposed for the lie they always were.

There is another myth about the Vampire; he withers and dies when exposed to the full glare of sunlight.
Well, an awakened populace will burn with the strength of a thousand suns.

So you better look out Parasite —
Coz we are the light.

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

The ‘awakend populace’ is asleep and dark and cold to the ‘parasite populace’, as much as the ‘parasite populace’ considers themselves awaked . . . who is parasite or awakened? The ‘awakened’ will allow all and sundry to exist make sure there are spaces and that communities of similar minded types have reasonable spaces to live as they will, the ‘parasite’ denies and will parasite off the unhappiness and frustration of those who are denied existence and spaces.

I’d say that the dichotomy or dark and light requires that without host or parasite, without vampire or victim, reality would cease to exist. There must be spaces for all, and government had better make sure the everyone with potentially-boundless imaginations has the space to indulge and later move on. There can be no 1000 suns without that single black hole. The cycle of nature cannot be denied, and whatever level of development we are at, rest assured that evil is as much needed as good (for lack of a better example much like any culture or fashion or style or subculture). To transcend both would be consignment to a grey immensity so terrible that the shaven conformity and mindless limited repetitive chanting of monks would seem pleasant by comparison.

So please do not disparage the appetites that define the asceticisms, some of us prefer to live alternately between entropy and creation or rest for centuries or millenia as either, even as those who wish to be Good or Evil for eternity have the same right to do so. Just remember, too many on one side, too many too long on either, results in HEGEMONY and the destruction of the fine balance of reality. There will be souls that play the part of fools until they grow up to decide to be either or none or both, there will be souls of many sorts, and that is where a legalized KILL ZONE (where murder might be ignored), and a legalized RLD with OPZ access where people drink and experiement with substances or drown in the sensation of their choice for as long as they want, and a legalized NON-CONTACT/NON-EMOTE ZONE (where no sports, even emotional or spiritual ‘touching/contact’ is allowed) will be enforced by government.

The hero is the one who sees all the above, the hero is the one who works to ensure the Facilitator abides by the right to express and the right to migrate, to be in the community appropriate to their level of development.This can span lifetimes, some may spiral down or up, but that is because someone else needed to move faster, slower or climb or fall. There is no taboo in REALITY save for that which others impose, but the Facilitators will be damned and even murdered (occasionally we witness political assassinations or accidents perhaps given by nature itself) for not ensuring that people get what they want, and in history many a revolution occured in retaliation because of denials. There could even be dystopian Capitalist hell but doubtless only a small portion of society would hole themselves in the Cult of Economics, even as the Cult of Naturists want to pick nuts and fruits from plants and walk around naked like Adam and Eve or in a RLD of their choice on the fringes of the Cult of Economics FOR FUN. THAT is reality which the Facilitators have FAILED to ensure thus far, causing cash based (‘pay or invest to enter’ rather than ‘your heart is right for this place so you can go there for free’) immigration blockades (where people closest to certain countries in their hearts may never be able to move to the country they love – Fundos should go to UAE for example, nudists could go to certain states in the USA, cultists could go to Aramea) or plutocracy based paradigms of society where food and jobs are so difficult to obtain and state dependency so high while land banks for food growing and housing are locked up by the state to their own citizens. MONEY is not what defines a spirit or a soul, MONEY must never limit rights of migration or the energy system in the astral and ether will make sure Humanity pays and NEVER EVOLVES.

So stop thinkin on the 3rd dimension and get those laws amended to a 4th or more dimensional compliant form, we will NEVER evolve as a species until the astral and ethereal incongruencies attract the super entity predators of other dimensions to make short work of us.

The life we have is OURS alone to experience by, the government is only a Facilitator and bureaucracy can never expect cults of personality or limitless terms. There is no other way or chaos by dominance by numbers will result. Everyone gets what they want and government will make spaces, ensure there will be no incursions by those diametrically opoosed in lifetsyle, by those who disparage, the size of each space will be appropriate to the requirement of the activity multiplied by the size of the community. There will be Hell and Heaven on Earth, there will be pockets of Nature untouched, there will be Urabanscapes for those who love that sort of density and a-spiritaulity, and the only underlying thread will be the Facilitator who (while currently failed) will not interfere nor judge, save only where the non-consensual are affected. Parasites have their spaces. The we who consider themselves ‘light’ (despite being obviously mortal) should begin fasting, self-imposing sensory deprivation and insulated communes to prepare for their transitions into ‘light’.

There must be freedom to travel, rights to migrate not based around wealth and distribution of wealth and land not sequestration by plutocrats or preventiopn of fair use (food growing or homes) state. This is just the start of civilisation, and if the above is not implemented in time, there will be more and more riots until Capitalism is wiped from the face of the earth for preventing natural migration and prevention of homeless and starving from using land to support themselves by. The only other rule is not to overpopulate. THAT IS ALL for now, if we cannot at least distribute land and wealth equitably first, nothing spiritual will move forward or be revealed.

ARTICLE 18

MICHIGAN – Good coffee is not easy to find. But good baristas are even more difficult to chance upon – and no, we’re not just referring to their coffee-making skills.

Hot Spot cosplay clad Baristas . . .

A couple in Michigan, USA, have come up with the perfect way to lure customers to their coffee shop.

Called Hot Spot Coffee, the drive-through coffee stand is attracting long lines of customers who are there not just for coffee.

The shop even has special days like ‘Topless Tuesdays’ and ‘Flasher Fridays’.

While their coffee-making skills might not be top-notch, the baristas at Hot Spot are definitely a unique addition to the workforce in Detroit.

Because of them, business has been brisk and Hot Spot quickly expanded to its third branch.

In a short, sheer, baby-doll negligee and coordinated pink panties, Candice Law is dressed to work at a drive-through espresso stand in… – Originally published Monday, January 22, 2007 at 12:00 AM – by Amy Roe – Seattle Times Eastside bureau

Candice Law, a barista at Cowgirls Espresso in Tukwila, chats with customer Gary Lundstrom. She and other baristas vary their outfits, depending on the day’s theme. “Everybody’s excited to see you,” Law says.
Enlarge this photo

Barista Candice Law at Cowgirls Espresso in Tukwila says she makes more in tips than she ever did as a waitress at Hooters.
Enlarge this photo

In a short, sheer, baby-doll negligee and coordinated pink panties, Candice Law is dressed to work at a drive-through espresso stand in Tukwila, and she is working it.

Customers pull their trucks up to the window, where Law greets each with an affectionate nickname, blows kisses, and vamps about as she steams milk for a mocha. “You want whipped cream?” she asks, a sly smile playing on her pierced lip.

The next customer rolls up, and Law throws a long leg onto the window sill, like an indie-rock ballerina at the barre.

“Do you like my leg warmers?” she asks. “Aren’t they hot?”

Hot is not the half of it. To stand apart from the hordes of drive-through espresso stands that clutter the Northwest’s roadsides, commuter coffee stops such as Tukwila’s Cowgirls Espresso are adding bodacious baristas, flirty service and ever more-revealing outfits to the menu.

At Port Orchard’s Natté Latté, baristas sport hot-pink hot pants and tight white tank tops. Day-of-the-week theme outfits ranging from racy lingerie to “fetish” ensembles are the dress code at Moka Girls Espresso in Auburn and at several Cowgirls Espresso stands in the area. Bikini tops are the special at Café Lorraine on Highway 9 in Woodinville, and the women of The Sweet Spot in Shoreline pose provocatively in Playmate-style profiles on the stand’s Web site.

“In this area, we all know how to make good coffee,” said Barbara Record, who opened Bikini Espresso in Renton last month. The trick is to set your business apart, she said, and sex is one sure-fire way to do that.

“It’s just, how far do you want to go?” she said.

At Best Friend Espresso in Kenmore, baristas go thigh-high. An elevated service window offers customers a nearly full-length view of pretty, young baristas — some of them high-school students — in short skirts, tank tops and high heels.

Best Friend owner Wayne Hembree said he requires employees to dress “classy;” in dresses, skirts and a nice top.

“What I think most of them have found is that their tips are better if they wear short skirts,” he said.

Occasionally, Best Friend does theme days, such as “schoolgirl” or adding glasses for a sexy “secretary” look, manager Heather Bacon said.

Longer commutes, a change in laws regulating the stands, and the saturation of the carryout coffee market have given drive-through stands a jolt in the past few years.

When the state’s smoking ban went into effect last year, many bar, casino and convenience-store owners sought to make up for expected losses by renting part of their parking lots to espresso stands, said Lori Bowden, owner of the Cowgirls Espresso stands.

The advent of “sexpresso” is harder to track. Business and baristas debate over who pioneered the edgy outfits, but they agree that by sweetening the product, with a smile and maybe a shot of hazelnut syrup, they’ve reached out to customers who’ve never set foot in a Starbucks.

Drive-throughs are a growing part of Starbucks’ business, too, with more than 1,500 drive-through locations throughout the United States. But a representative of the company said it has no plans to sex up the dress code, as it wouldn’t fit the company’s brand.

At places such as Cowgirls, the barista is the brand.

“If I’m going to pay $4 for a cup of coffee” said one male customer, “I’m not going to get served by a guy.”

That attitude has been a boon to Cowgirls. Bowden, a former vending-machine-company owner, has acquired seven drive-through stands, with a total of 26 employees, all of them women.

Though most of the stands in the area pay minimum wage, Law said she makes more in tips than she ever did as a waitress at Hooters. One recent morning, she served 400 customers between about 6 a.m. and noon.

“Your customers freakin’ adore you. Everybody’s excited to see you,” Law said. “You spend a few minutes with them and they leave.”

They come back, too.

When Ryan Reed pulled up to Best Friend Espresso for his usual, a 24-ounce iced vanilla latte, on a recent weekday afternoon, he knew what to expect.

Hembree said actually, he looks for customer-service skills. The dress code, which he started four years ago, was inspired by an employee whose polished look boosted business, he said. Hembree also requires staff members to wear makeup and do their hair, “and these guys, I won’t lie to you, they like that,” he said.

But Best Friend has made some enemies. Jeff Marshall, whose wife, Wendy, owns the gift shop Chalet Cadeau, said the couple moved their business from Kenmore to Kirkland last month in frustration over neighboring Best Friend Espresso. Marshall said the business caused traffic problems and drove customers away from the gift shop.

“It’s disgusting,” he said of the stand. “It’s an undesirable business from a community that’s trying to sell itself as a family-oriented community.”

Kenmore City Manager Steve Anderson said city officials looked into Marshall’s complaints.

“We’ve heard of issues and we’ve had undercover investigations, police surveillance, and it resulted in nothing,” he said. Likewise, King County sheriff’s spokesman John Urquhart said the business isn’t breaking any laws.

Bowden said law requires that employees cover their breasts and buttocks, so there will be no “thong Thursday,” as some customers have requested.

Back in that cow-spotted stand in front of Silver Dollar Casino in Tukwila, Law steams milk and dreams up new themes.

“I like the idea of Saran Wrap Saturday,” she mused. “Now they’ve got those colored Saran Wraps. Dude, they could totally make a cute outfit.”

Bikini Bottom Espresso, Inc.
Currently accepting resume’s and conducting working interviews! We offer full time, part time and fill in positions with all our espresso stands.
All are double sided drive thru, high energy, busy stands with great customer service!
Experience a plus, but not required! We are looking for outgoing, SUPER FUN, responsible barista’s who can be “Fashionista’s” and “ROCK” a Thong and some Pasties…once in a while.
Must be 18 yrs old
Must have own vehicle

If you feel you have what it takes to be the next “Bikini Bottom Barista”, then please apply!

Send a couple pictures of yourself in either a bikini or lingerie and a resume!
OR
You may apply in person at:

7919 176th
Puyallup, WA

13907 Pacific Ave South
Tacoma, WA 98444

10506 Bridgeport Way SW
Lakewood, WA 98499

Thank You, Talk to you soon!

[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]

“Do you like my leg warmers?” she asks. “Aren’t they hot?” Finally civilisation! I think those 72 ‘Muslim’ (disgusting!) virgins would be forgotten . . .

Now that’s what I’m talking about! Hot Spot is evidently learning from the movies. Try one with males as well on (viagra or non viagra shift . . . do ask . . . ) Ok so wheres that ‘5th Element’ (1997 Luc Besson) version of McDonalds (perhaps a half-naked clown for the LGBT window for those into that sort of thing?)? After work, hanging around the Juggalos AFTER a whole day of hanging around ‘jugs’ . . . USA! USA!

Eventually we will see various sub-culture themed specific franchises. Alexandria Luxor Fast Foods anyone? Beer and Lion dinner . . . ‘To order in Egyptian please press 1 . . . ‘. Think of this sort of thing as a Race Car Expo without the race cars but just the Beauties. Who says the only time beauty can be on display or for appreciation is at Car Shows?

USA! USA!

ARTICLE 19

I’m Voting Third Party This Year – by Dave Lindorff – 11-2-12

I, for one, can’t (can rather?) do it.

As much as I loathe the Republican Party and its standard bearer, the incredibly smarmy shape-changing one-percenter and serial prevaricator Mitt Romney, I cannot bring myself this Nov. 6 to vote for the re-election of President Barack Obama, the Nobel Peace Laureate with the mushrooming Kill List on his desk.

First, by way of full disclosure, let me state that I did, with misgivings and angst, vote for Obama in 2008. I did it with eyes open, based upon a (you’ll excuse the expression) “hope” that the many progressive voters, including a huge cadre of idealistic young people voting for the first time, and an unprecedented wave of minority voters, as well as working-class people of all races, religions and ethnicities, would come together after the vote and press him to be a progressive president, much as the working people of America back in the early 1930s had pressed a new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the bankers’ candidate from New York, to be a progressive president.

Boy was mine a vain hope!

What we got instead was a president who backed down in advance at almost every challenge, telegraphing his fall-back position, whether it was pulling troops out of Iraq or defending Social Security and Medicare, or even his supposed signal “achievement,” the passage of the so-called “Affordable Care Act,” now known as Obamacare.

Had the president barnstormed the country promoting what his supporters (myself included) had elected him to do — a massive jobs program, breaking up of the big banks and a restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, passage of a new stronger labor law to make union organizing and bargaining more fair, establishment of a single-payer system for health care akin to what they have in Canada, ending the chain of endless wars, and restoring the Bill of Rights, this election next week wouldn’t even be close…

TCBH! Election Issue, Part II:

Why I’m Voting for Barack Obama – by John Grant

For an ordinary American these days, there isn’t much one can do to affect the direction of the federal government of the United States. Much of what our leaders do with that government — especially the more and more secret military and surveillance activities symbolized by the Pentagon — exists beyond the realm of real change.

One very small power a citizen retains in his or her public life is the vote. The problem, of course, is that critical issues are not discussed in the mainstream media where the national political dialogue occurs. For instance, you can’t use the term “class,” you can’t use the phrase “global warming” and you certainly can’t use the term “imperialism.” They are embargoed terms. And anything you cannot talk about and discuss in an effective manner is difficult or impossible to change.

As one soon learns in the journalism business, a national issue has to become a Democratic-Republican “pissing contest” before the mainstream will even touch it. Then it becomes a circus of who’s up and who’s down. So our imperial military-industrial complex — absurdly lumped under the euphemism “defense” — is discussed only by out-of-the-mainstream publications like This Can’t Be Happening and by third party candidates.

My more revolutionary friends, thus, see voting for President Obama as tantamount to selling out to the beast. I understand how they feel. While I’m as much a red-blooded American citizen as anyone and while I feel many Americans are good people, I’m thoroughly disgusted with the leadership in this country and the steady rightward drift over the past 30 plus years.

This feeling began for me when I came home from doing my service as part of the international war crime called the Vietnam War. I went to college and then started a career in journalism. Along came Ronald Reagan and his Shining City On a Hill. He preached the line that there was no “malaise” in America, and too many Americans ate it up like a herd of hungry cattle.

The joke going around these days is that Richard Nixon would be to the left of Barack Obama. It’s really not a joke; it’s true. The joke is on the American people and what could have been…

TCBH! Election Issue, Part III:

Lying Lines Republican Route to White House

By Linn Washington, Jr.

It’s bad enough that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney lies repeatedly on the campaign trail and top Romney surrogates like John Sununu crassly engage in race-baiting that elicits no rebuke from Romney.

But the Republican Party’s penchant for prevarication and prejudice in pursuit of the U.S. presidency is reaching a new low ­ yet again ­ with actions by a GOP aligned group called Raging Elephants.

This group is funding billboards in Texas and Tennessee trumpeting the factually flawed assertion that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Was a Republican,” and is urging black voters to “VOTE REPUBLICAN.”

A Raging Elephants’ billboard campaign in Memphis links that MLK-was-a-Republican line with requests to vote for a black female Republican congressional candidate running there.

This King-was-a-Republican claim resurrects a similar fraudulent claim mounted in 2008 by a group called the National Black Republican Association. That Association placed billboards in South Carolina, Florida and Denver pushing the same flawed contention about Dr. King.

There is no historical evidence that the decidedly non-partisan Dr. King worked for either Republicans or Democrats. Nor is there any evidence that King’s father publicly identified himself as a Republican, though many blacks during the early-to-mid-20th Century did, understandably identified politically back then with the party of slave-emancipator Abraham Lincoln.

Dr. King’s son, Martin Luther King III, in 2008, told the Associated Press that it was “disingenuous to imply that my father was a Republican. He never endorsed any presidential candidate and there is no evidence he ever even voted for a Republican.”

David Garrow, author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography on Dr. King, has told reporters that it is “simply incorrect to call Dr. King a Republican”…

JOHN GRANT, DAVE LINDORFF and LINN WASHINGTON, JR. are all members of ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent Project Censored Award-winning online alternative newspaper.. Their work, and that of colleagues LORI SPENCER and CHARLES M. YOUNG, can be found at http://www.thiscantbehappening.net

After that NLP right at the front of the article . . . don’t be all ‘MMXII’ and calling yourself a ‘Trends Research Institute’ and not field any candidates during the election. Your single vote Mr.Lindorff, falls far short of what you could do by being a candidate in any constituency without a 3rd Party Candidate. If Dave does not run, lip service will be what a ‘Trends Research Institute’ will become. How about running for election in a constituency where there is no 3rd Candidate Dave? If ‘Trends Research Institute’ has the interest especially when USA is being wiped out, ‘Trends Research Institute’ will be unforgivable if ‘Trends Research Institute’ does not even field a single 3rd Party Candidate. Don’t sell yourself short while beinng big on ego, America needs 3rd Candidates in ALL states and all districts. A single vote means nothing. This is the political and effective version of ‘Occupy’. No GLC linked, no Plutocrats, no Nepotists, no persons who stayed beyond 2 terms, for a start. Show those 3rd World Countries how Occupy is done! OCCUPY ALL ELECTIONS! 3rd Force Candidates in all contested seats!

Meanwhile, would the ‘Trend’s Institute’ like to take up the Civil case against the ‘Apartheid of Bumiputra’ that has caused the lack of :

See what has happened in ASEAN? The Bar Council means nothing, entirely misses this sort of abuse. Don’t take American freedoms for granted!

Incidentally, Obama won the 2012 Presidential election . . . congrats but PLEASE deal with the inequality in Malaysia already and perhaps make an example of Muslims who try to dhimmify free and equal citizens of the world simply because they are Muslims! Will the US Embassy in Malaysia display exceptionalism and the UN act, to end the APARTHEID of BUMIPUTERA and lack of the above 3 listed items?

What do you call a Black man who rejects equal rights for his own people and others? A racist traitor.

What do you call a rejectionist leader? A criminal who should be impeached, removed and prosecuted.

Obama stands guilty on multiple counts. His rap sheet includes much more than spurning Palestinian rights. He’s complicit in grand theft and war crimes multiple times over. He’s unfit to serve. He should be in prison, not government.

Throughout his tenure, he repeatedly violated international, constitutional, and US statute laws. He’s contemptuous of fundamental rights and other democratic values.

From his earliest Chicago political days, he supported ethnic cleansing gentrification. Real estate and other financial priorities trumped populism. They still do and much m